Coronavirus Update and Health System Preparations - 7/10

Testing and Confirmed Cases

To protect patient privacy, DCH has established a minimum threshold of five for reporting numbers of inpatients with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19.

DCH internal counts as of 3:20 p.m. on 7/10/20:

• 59 inpatients are being treated for COVID-19.
• 18 inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
• Six who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
• 1,584 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 11,963 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
• 2,015 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 14,428 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
• 367 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
• 79 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died at DCH. This is not an indication of the cause of death, only that the individuals were positive for COVID-19 at the time of death.
• 52 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).

Also included is a chart showing the percent positive among those tested at DCH locations. This chart reflects totals by the end of each day (except today).

Increased Testing Volumes at Labs

As previously reported, DCH was able to acquire equipment to allow in-house testing of suspected COVID inpatients. However, limited supplies have not allowed for the remote site (tent) testing to be conducted in-house. Those specimens are still sent to one of several third-party vendors. Over time the labs have adapted and turnaround times have decreased to a few days in most cases.

Recently we have received notes from those vendors that the current demand is exceeding their capacity. We anticipate turnaround times for the remote site to increase to a week or more while the labs work to manage the load.