Officials fear COVID-19 spike from holiday travel

Is America in a second wave—or even a third one—with the COVID-19 pandemic?

A number of medical professionals around the world believe the answer to that is “no.” They see the spike in cases seen across Europe and the U.S. as a delayed reaction brought on by a combination of spring lockdowns and warmer summer weather.

But if there is a true second wave coming, we might know soon enough: Millions of Americans are about to engage in a sort of mass social experiment with travel over the Thanksgiving season. Because of that, health professionals in the Kansas City region, where hospital utilization has surged over the past month, are particularly concerned about the potential for an overwhelming number of cases in the weeks to come.

Even though air travel is expected to fall by 50 percent from last Thanksgiving—and an even greater reduction is expected at Kansas City International Airport—that still accounts for a lot of passengers and potential exposure. With their finances slammed throughout the pandemic this year, airlines will be doing their best to fill every seat—hardly meeting the dictates of social-distancing guidelines propounded by health-care providers.

And it’s happening at the worst time of the year in terms of regional medical resources. Over the past week, two of the region’s largest medical centers—the University of Kansas Health System and Topeka’s Stormont Vail—eclipsed 100 hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients for the first time since the pandemic arrived in the Midwest in March. Not only are beds full, but some institutions are seeing record numbers of care-givers sidelined by the virus, as well.

Health professionals are particularly frustrated by the timing. With three new vaccines about to hit the market in December, the nation will have new tools to combat spread of the virus. But priority will be given to nursing-home patients, those in other congregate care and work settings, and the front-line health-care workers at greatest risk. Better choices now, public-health figures say, can pay dividends in the weeks and months to come until the general populace can start receiving doses in the spring or summer.

Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System, believes things are going to be different a year from now. Until then, he encourages people to continue masking up, maintaining their distance and practicing good hygiene with regular hand-washing. And, even though emotionally challenging, refraining from large holiday gatherings.

“We are on fire in the Midwest” with rising case counts, cautions Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system. An indicator of that is the rise in patients from outside the metro area, perhaps one-third of the hospital’s total, he said.

Robert Kenagy, CEO at Stormont Vail, says the hospital is essentially full, and “we have expanded again into additional departments with COVID-19 beds while we continue to care for patients who are here for surgeries, heart attacks, strokes and other medical conditions, and for our new mothers and babies and pediatric patients.”

Trying to take care of a community’s medical needs in a pandemic, Kenagy said, “is a precarious balance and there is no playbook for reference. We are committed to taking care of our region. At the same time, we continue to have our team beleaguered by the impact of the virus, some ill and others out with exposure because of the massive community spread.”