Richmond, Va. (Newsradiowrva.com) -The health system that serves Southwest Virginia and nearby Tennessee says every indicator they have shows that the next few weeks will be worse than the Covid surge they saw last winter. Ballad Health believes it is possible they may be handling close to 500 Covid patients in the next few weeks.
Currently, the vaccinate rate for their service area is less than 40%. Ballad Health says, however, that 95% of their patients are not vaccinated or only partially vaccinated. Ballad also says they are seeing more kids than at any other time during the pandemic.
Ballad is heavily stressing vaccinations, saying it made a clear difference in the winter. They are also asking for mask mandates for schools to try and reduce spread.