For the first time in nearly two months, The Medical Center at Bowling Green and Glasgow’s T.J. Samson Community Hospital have seen decreases in COVID-19 patients over the last seven days.

On Sept. 10, Med Center Health Executive Vice President Wade Stone said the Bowling Green hospital had 79 patients with the virus while T.J. Regional Health Executive Vice President of Marketing Stacey Biggs said the Glasgow hospital had 46 such inpatients. On Friday, Stone reported 72 COVID-19 patients while Biggs said the Glasgow hospital had 44.

It was the first time in six weeks either hospital has not reported a weekly increase in COVID-19 patients.

“On Sept. 11, we got up to 84 patients. We have clearly seen that number come down recently. Obviously, we are encouraged by some downward movement with that number. We have cautious optimism, but we urge the public to keep getting vaccinated. Vaccination is absolutely the key to beating this,” Stone said.

Stone said out of the 72 COVID-19 patients, 71% were unvaccinated, 14 were in critical care and 11 were on a ventilator. Eighty percent of the patients in critical care were unvaccinated.

He said the number of employees who have been out with COVID-related illnesses has dropped by 54% in the past three weeks.

“Staffing has obviously been a challenge for every hospital around the nation during this surge,” he said. “The more staff we can get back from illness – the better. We are very encouraged to see that number (of staff out with illness) continue to drop over the past few weeks.”

As of Friday morning, Stone said Med Center Health had crossed 92,000 doses of vaccine administered to the public.

He also said the National Guard would continue to assist the hospital with non-clinical support capacities for at least another week.

Biggs said seven of T.J. Samson’s 44 COVID-19 patients were vaccinated, 12 COVID-19 patients were in the ICU and seven were on a ventilator. None of the patients in the ICU or on a ventilator are vaccinated.

“You can look at it a couple of different ways,” she said. “The good news is that we are still hovering around the same number of COVID-19 patients. But the bad news is our positivity rate is still at 25%. That’s still extremely high so that indicates we won’t see a massive decrease within the next two weeks.”

Biggs said the ICU is operating at 220% capacity due to the surge of COVID-19 patients. The official ICU only has 10 beds, and the hospital has 22 total patients in critical care from across all ailments. Officials have had to convert normal patient rooms to ICU rooms to accommodate people.

Biggs said the National Guard’s assistance through the week has been a “tremendous help” and she is hopeful they will continue to assist the hospital past this week.

TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital Marketing Manager Michael Ferguson said the hospital is continuing to stick by the following statement concerning its COVID-19 patient situation: “TriStar Greenview has seen an increase in COVID-19 patients in the past few weeks, similar to what other hospitals are seeing in southcentral Kentucky. This increase causes intensive care units to reach capacity at certain times. On a regular basis, there is a continual flow of patients admitted and discharged from the ICU. When nearing capacity, we make every effort to expand additional step-down and medical bed areas.”

The latest update from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Human Services on Friday showed that all but one county in the state – Clinton – is marked red for having a “critical” COVID-19 incidence rate.

Of the 10 counties in the Barren River region, only two had a vaccination rate of at least 50%: Simpson and Logan. Butler, Warren, Barren and Monroe counties all have a vaccination rate of at least 40%.