Dr. George Morris

Treatments of the COVID-19 virus have changed since St. Cloud Hospital and CentraCare was first faced with the challenge of working with COVID-19 patients in the spring of 2020. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON today.

COVID-19 cases at St. Cloud Hospital are up again this week and are now at levels they haven't seen since late December of 2020. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me this week on WJON. He says CentraCare has 120 positive COVID-19 cases with 100 of them at St. Cloud Hospital.

CentraCare continues to be at capacity and that includes St. Cloud Hospital this week. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON today. He says they have 97 COVID positive patients within CentraCare with 70 at St. Cloud Hospital.

CentraCare issued a vaccine mandate for employees in August. CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON this week. He said in the past week they started the vaccination process of another 120 employees bringing their total vaccination numbers to just under 80% of their staff vaccinated.

Pfizer has already received FDA authorization to administer COVID-19 boosters or 3rd doses to eligible individuals. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON. He expects Moderna to received authorization as early as late next week with Johnson and Johnson to likely receive approval soon after that.

CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris says CentraCare and St. Cloud Hospital is "at capacity for all patients". Morris says they have approximately the same amount of COVID-19 patients within CentraCare and at St. Cloud Hospital as they had last week but with all other non COVID-19 care needs they just don't have the beds or enough staff to handle the pressure they are facing due to COVID.

CentraCare has more than 1,300 openings. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON. He says they have lost a significant amount of employees over the last year plus due to COVID. Morris says this started in January because COVID has "been so hard, the hours have been long and the challenges have been immense."

The COVID-19 numbers at St. Cloud Hospital and within CentraCare have increased to the point where they have now surpassed the spring surge numbers. That according to CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris. He says they have 75 positive COVID-19 patients within CentraCare with more than 60 at St. Cloud Hospital.

Last week CentraCare spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON and said unvaccinated CentraCare employees would not be fired. That is still technically the case. This week when I talked with Dr. Morris he got into more detail as to what the result would be for employees who choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The latest Delta variant driven COVID-19 surge at St. Cloud Hospital continues this week. CentraCare Spokesman Dr. George Morris joined me on WJON this week. He says they have 60 COVID-19 patients within CentraCare with 50 of them at St. Cloud Hospital.