Macon hospitals treating coronavirus patients from outside Bibb County
Bibb County has four confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the most recent tally from the state health department, but that number reflects people who live in the county and have tested positive: It doesn’t include all of the patients being treated by Macon hospitals for the new coronavirus.
The Georgia Department of Public Health doesn’t provide information on where people who have been hospitalized with COVID-19 are being treated, and local hospitals aren’t releasing coronavirus-patient counts. The department also has not started releasing the number of individuals who have recovered from COVID-19.
As of early this week, seven people with the new coronavirus were hospitalized at the Medical Center, Navicent Health, in downtown, a source familiar with the number of COVID-19 patients told The Telegraph.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, said about 20 additional patients admitted at the Medical Center were awaiting results of coronavirus tests.
Where the patients were from wasn’t clear, but at least some had been sent from other counties.
The Medical Center has in recent days acknowledged treating at least two patients — a pair who were among the first reported in the midstate — but the hospital has since said through a spokesperson that it will not be updating its coronavirus-patient counts.
On Tuesday, the Coliseum Medical Centers, which overlook downtown from the city’s east side, reported through a spokesperson that it was treating two COVID-19 patients who had been admitted there.
Word that Macon hospitals are treating patients infected with virus is not unexpected as the facilities are often the go-to medical centers for ill or injured people from a 100-plus-mile radius. And as other hospitals in the state exceed their patient capacity, hospitals in Middle Georgia will be asked to take in more patients.
Dr. Patrice Walker, the Medical Center’s chief medical officer, said in a statement sent to news outlets that the hospital “routinely accepts transfers from other hospitals across central and south Georgia.”
“We have been and will continue to screen patients at clinical points of entry into the Navicent Health system in order to identify those potentially carrying COVID-19,” Walker said. “If an individual is identified, that person will be isolated in a controlled environment, and we will inform and work closely with our partners at the Department of Public Health while performing additional tests and providing care.”
The Medical Center recently accepted “a handful of patients” from Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany, according to a Phoebe Putney spokesman on Tuesday, including a few battling COVID-19.
Telegraph senior editor Caleb Slinkard contributed to this report.