Beginning Thursday, Sept. 9, Reid Health is pausing all elective inpatient surgeries as the health system works to manage the latest surge of COVID-19 cases.

Wayne County moved Wednesday, Sept. 8, to the state’s worst advisory level for community spread, which is the red level. 

Emergent/urgent surgeries will proceed, as will outpatient surgeries scheduled at Reid Outpatient Surgery & Endoscopy (ROSE).

All scheduled surgeries will be reviewed for urgency, and the surgeon’s office will reach out to those patients who need to be rescheduled.

The decision comes with the approval of state health officials as hospitals across Indiana deal with the COVID-19 pandemic’s latest wave.

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The move will allow clinical staff to be available for other inpatient needs as cases across Reid Health’s service area continue to rise and Reid remains on critical bed status.

Twenty-five suspected COVID admissions have taken place in the past 24 hours.

On Wednesday, Reid announced it had 68 patients in COVID containment areas for COVID or suspected COVID, with 58 of those patients unvaccinated.

There are 14 COVID patients in Reid’s ICU, and 12 of those are unvaccinated.

Of Reid’s 10 COVID patients on a ventilator, nine are unvaccinated.

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Those with questions about COVID are asked to contact their health provider for more information.

Reid has re-established its COVID hotline from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week at (765) 965-4200 and encourages its patients to use that phone number as their primary contact for all things COVID related, such as scheduling COVID testing, receiving test results and requesting clinical advice, such as monoclonal antibody infusions.

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Millicent Martin Emery is a reporter and editor for the Western Wayne News.