Hospital Admin Warn Against 'Premature Victory Lap' Over Decreased COVID Hospitalizations

Dec. 8, 2020, 2:31 p.m. ·

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Local hospital officials say it's still too soon to know if the Thanksgiving holiday will cause an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

CHI Health CEO Cliff Robertson says risk is still incredibly high even though hospitalizations have gone down over the past week.

"I think the next five or six days will be very telling in terms of whether or not we see a bump in hospitalizations as a result of the Thanksgiving holiday," Robertson said.

810 Nebraskans are in the hospital with the virus as of Monday night, down from a peak of 987 in mid-November.

Bob Ravenscroft is vice president for advancement at Bryan Health. He says the Lincoln hospital has not seen as much of a decline in COVID patients as the rest of the state.

"Like we've said before, taking premature victory laps is not what we want to do with COVID and it's still a very high census for COVID patients here."

Robertson and Ravenscroft both say the hospital systems have not changed the criteria for COVID-19 patients to be admitted.