DCH Coronavirus Update 1-14-21

COVID-19 Vaccine Registration Clarification

Yesterday, DCH provided a link for frontline health care workers (inpatient and outpatient), first responders (including law enforcement and firefighters) and those who are 75 years or older to register for the COVID-19 vaccine.

As we expected, appointment slots filled up quickly.

We are finding many who registered and indicated they are K-12 educators or are between 65-74 years old. At this time, per Alabama Department of Public Health direction, those groups are not eligible to receive a vaccine at the DCH site.

Those who are ineligible will receive an email indicating this, and their appointment will be canceled so that others can fill the time slot. Additionally, identification will be collected at the time of vaccination, and individuals who do not meet the criteria (and were not identified earlier) will be asked to schedule a vaccine when they become eligible to do so.

It is a very manual and time-consuming process to sort through these registrations. Please help by waiting until you qualify to register for a vaccine appointment.

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 Health System internal counts as of 3:45 p.m. on 1/14/21:

• 184 inpatients within the DCH system who are positive for COVID-19.
• 38 inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
• 16 who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
• 22 who are positive for COVID-19 are on a BiPAP.
• 7,573 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 34,046 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
• 9,107 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 59,996 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
• 2,319 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
• 425 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.
• 183 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).