Eastern Shore healthcare systems say they are ready for delta variant-Urge Vaccinations

SALISBURY, MD- Cases of the Delta Variant of Covid19 are rising across the US, but here on the Eastern shore, cases remain low.
Doctors and healthcare systems are attributing this lack of cases as a lag time of spread, caused by the eastern shore’s rural layout.

“Being a rural environment actually has a little bit of protection because we don’t have the close proximity in interaction that people do in more urban areas,” said VP of Integration at Tidal Health Dr. James Trumble.

Dr.Trumble believes that the delta variant will eventually come to the Eastern Shore.

“We are now where we were in March of 2020 seeing these spikes in inland areas we know it can spread it is just the nature of people being social but we have the capacity in our hospital,” he said.

Dr. Trumble is hoping Tidal Health won’t have to use that capacity if eastern shore residents take safe steps to avoid more spread.

“I think we still have an opportunity if we really put in a hard effort- to wear masks and social distance to still eliminate this- it’s tough but possible and would require an all-out effort from really everybody,” he said.

Health officials are concerned about the delta variant due to the increased ease of transmission it presents, compared to the original covid19 virus.

“The original wild type they describe it now to the UK variant was 50 percent more transmissible, this is 50 percent more contagious than that,” he said.

Cases however are remaining low, with the Maryland Department of Health and Delaware Healthcare Association reporting less than 100 cases.

Those health departments are pointing to a specific population for the spread, those who have not received the covid19 vaccine.

“Without a doubt, it is the unvaccinated population who at the greatest risk and where we see the spread,” Dr. Trumble said.

MDP says all covid deaths in the last month and over 93 percent of hospitalizations have come from those without the vaccine.

Pfizer says fully vaccinated people are nearly 90 percent protected from the Delta variant but just one dose drops the number to only 15-percent.

But according to Dr. Trumble, while the vaccines decrease the risk, they don’t eliminate it.

“The potential is there pass it around even if you’re vaccinated,” he said.

He recommends a return to wearing masks indoors when in public places with poor ventilation such as grocery stores.

He says the best defense is to increase the Wicomico County vaccination rate from 44 percent.

He believes as those numbers rise, the cases of Delta and the chance of a backslide on pandemic progress decrease.

“We aren’t out of the woods yet, not by a longshot,” he said.