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COVID hospitalizations dropping but former patient and health officials stress continued prevention

Dave Herring had COVID-19 in November and he is urging people, "we're part of the way home, but we got a long ways with this stuff."

TOLEDO, Ohio — Ohio health officials say we continue to trend in the right direction. New COVID-19 numbers show fewer cases and hospitalizations now than just a few weeks ago.

Dave Herring received care for COVID-19 at McLaren St. Luke's in November, when cases were surging to around 5,000 a day in Ohio. When he was taken off a ventilator, he had to ask a tough question of his nurses.

"I want to ask you something and seriously, I want an honest answer out of you," he said. "Am I going to make it? Am I going to die?"

Herrings described the conditions in the emergency room when he went to be admitted as frightening. 

"I've been in emergency rooms a lot during my life and this was really, really bad," he said. "They did not have the staff to cover as many because the whole floor had been converted to COVID."

ProMedica Dr. Brian Kaminski says we have come a long way in the past two months, noting things looked dark at one point.

"At the time we were still surging, so we didn't know when we were at a peak, that is was a true peak," he said, "and there were some signs that volume of patients might continue to go up."

Luckily, Kaminski said hospitals were able to manage cases and avoid drastic measures like opening outside emergency care facilities. But he stressed medical workers are feeling the physical stress of the pandemic, but the mental toll is even more concerning.

"Even know we have fewer patients receiving medical care, we know those mental health impacts tend to last a little a bit longer," Kaminski said.

And Herring says he'll never forget the care he received from his nurses and doctors.

RELATED: Coronavirus survivor sings song to 'raise up' healthcare heroes at McLaren St. Luke's

"The nurses, you know they live with this and how they do that and maintain their sanity is remarkable to me," Herring said, "we're part of the way home, but we got a long ways with this stuff."

Kaminski says for perspective we now have one-fifth of the hospitalizations we had at the peak of the second wave. But there are still people being admitted to the hospital with COVID each day, some being significantly ill.

He does say there is light at the end of the tunnel as those numbers continue to improve but we have to remain vigilant with mask wearing, social distancing and good hand washing.

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