60+ People with Covid at St. Cloud Hospital [PODCAST]

Dr. George Morris from CentraCare joined me on WJON today. He says St. Cloud Hospital and CentraCare continues to see an increase of positive Covid-19 patients. He says they have more than 60 after having around 50 the week before. He says a quarter of those individuals are in the ICU/Critical Care unit. Morris says the cases have typically been people between the ages of 40-60 or 60+ who hadn't received a vaccination. Listen to our conversation below.

CentraCare continues to rollout vaccinations as soon their supplies arrive. Morris says with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine placed on pause that caused them to push back some scheduled vaccinations but they were getting far more Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Morris says getting to a herd immunity by June or July is a still a possibility but urges people to get vaccinated to help us get to the 70 to 90 percent herd immunity need to return to some sort of immunity. Morris says clinical trials continue on children 0-16 with the hopes of making vaccines available to young people by the end of summer.

Benton and Sherburne counties scored the lowest this week on amounts of vaccines administered. Morris says they are doing the best they can to vaccinate people on a timely basis and takes some responsibility for those low numbers. He says if enough people chose to not get the vaccine it is possible that these waves of positive cases and hospitalizations can continue into the summer.

Dr. Morris joins me weekly on WJON. These conversation air Saturdays from 7-8 a.m. and every other Friday from 8-8:50 a.m.