DANVILLE, Pa. — Geisinger's CEO and President Dr. Jaewon Ryu held a Covid-19 news conference for the first time in over eight months. Dr. Ryu talked about a variety of topics related to the pandemic in our area.
"In the last two, three months or so we have seen a continuing rise in the Covid virus activity in our communities and the hospitals, as a result, have been pretty overwhelmed from a capacity standpoint with these COVID cases," said Dr. Jaewon Ryu, CEO & President of Geisinger
According to Dr. Ryu, 9 out of 10 people hospitalized at a Geisinger facility because of COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
"If you are vaccinated you are five times less likely to be infected with COVID, to begin with. Even after that, you are ten times less likely to be hospitalized with COVID and then even more powerful still, you are eleven times less likely to die from COVID."
In addition to getting your COVID shot, Dr. Ryu said folks should also look to get the flu vaccine as well. With more social events happening this year, we run the risk of a possible twindemic.
"It is the idea that you can be infected with covid and flu together and as we said last year that is not the combination that you want, it is a one, two punch that could knock you out," said Dr. Ryu.
Geisinger says ICU beds are filling up with COVID patients but and the health system is also losing staff because of quarantine procedures.
"We have seen our numbers of employees out on quarantine climb above 1,000," said Dr. Ryu.
Folks who are in need of a flu or COVID vaccine shot can get one through Geisinger by CLICKING HERE.