Mortality rate has dropped with the latest influx of cases, Harkness said, due to better knowledge. Instead of resorting to a ventilator straight away, hospital staff pronates patients, meaning they put them on their stomach for an extended period of time.

Certain comorbid conditions, obesity and immunity deficiencies, have higher chance of death, Harkness said.

Harkness emphasized there is still no treatment for COVID-19, though he believes staff members are doing a better job of caring for patients with the virus.

So far, Southeast Health has had 38 deaths from the virus while Flower’s Hospital reports 27.

The two hospital administrators’ biggest concern is that despite dramatically increasing numbers of cases in the immediate area, people are still not taking the virus’ spread seriously.

He urged the community to wear masks, if not to protect themselves, then to protect others.

Since buckling down on requiring face coverings for patients and providers and requiring face shields for providers dealing with COVID patients, the hospital has not seen any COVID transmission occur inside the hospital.

Brannon said he worried with people not taking personal responsibility as cases have soared over the last week.

Having a high number of COVID cases headed into the flu season poses increased risks to public health, they said.

“Our biggest fear going forward is we haven’t seen a seasonality of COVID-19 yet. It’s just everywhere and it doesn’t seem to matter what the climate is,” Harkness said. “If it stays active and now we get into the flu season on top of it, we could get a double whammy related to how sick people are…”