Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center CEO offers sobering prediction on spread of COVID-19 if the virus isn’t taken seriously

wayne-meriwether-03-16
wayne-meriwether-03-16

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim more victims every day in Kentucky and around the world, Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center CEO Wayne Meriwether has issued a statement regarding the seriousness of the new virus and how, without slowing the virus’ progression, the medical community’s resources will be stretched to a breaking point.

Treating the virus with grave concern, Meriwether intimates, is foremost in limiting its capabilities to infect a high percentage of the population. To that end, Meriwether provided the following sobering numbers and facts about COVID-19 and how it could impact Grayson and surrounding counties:

As the CEO of Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center (TLRMC) I’m issuing a plea to our community to take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. Avoid large gatherings, practice social distancing and most importantly wash your hands often. For more information on how you can protect yourself go to the hospital’s website at tlrmc.com.

If we aren’t successful in slowing the spread of this virus, here’s the grim reality for our area (and it’s the same for my friends outside of Grayson County). TLRMC has a service area (Grayson and the surrounding six counties) of roughly 90,000 people.

The current projections are somewhere between 25-50 percent of individuals will become infected with the coronavirus. Five percent of those will be critical and require some type of life-support. On the low end that’s 22,500 infected with 1,125 being critical. Double that number on the high end.

At Twin Lakes Regional Medical Center we have six ICU beds.

As this pandemic plays out across the country our healthcare system is likely to stretched beyond our capacities. TLRMC is here to take care of the healthcare needs of our community. We have talented physicians, mid-level providers and staff that are prepared to combat the coronavirus head-on, but please do your part and give us a fighting chance.

We ask that the community follow the latest #COVID19 guidelines from Gov. Andy Beshear’s office to keep themselves and fellow community members safe.

For more information on what TLRMC is doing please visit: http://ow.ly/THDA50yLpOk

By Ken Howlett, News Director

Contact Ken at ken@k105.com