Excerpted from January 10, 2022 message to the community, inspirahealthnetwork.org/covid19

Hello, so I wish I had better news, but the reality is we are in the middle of the beginning of the surge. Our hospitals are filled and there are lots of really sick people here. So our emergency room waits are very long. We have begun to double up if we have single-bedded rooms. So there are now two patients in a room.

We are making accommodations and trying to hire staff temporarily to bring on to deal with all this surge and the Commissioner of Health has convened all of the CEOs and indicated the surge may begin anywhere between the 11th and the 20th of January, with the 20th hitting the peak, and then we don’t know how quickly that will fall, or it will be delayed—on one model, a different model, till the beginning of February.

Now, many of you have said to me, I don’t understand. I don’t understand all this conflicting guidance. I don’t understand why the rules aren’t just the rules. The rules aren’t the rules because the variant hasn’t given us a playbook, right. We’re all trying to figure it out. And so, the most important thing is really understanding that the things that we do know is, as we look at the numbers of patients in our hospital, those individuals who are on ventilators, which means that the sickest of the sick who have COVID, 80 percent, both nationally, as well as within our own facility, are unvaccinated. No, the vaccine will not prevent you from getting COVID, but it will certainly minimize the impact that this virus has.

So we continue to make available all of our vaccine availability within Mullica Hill and Vineland. That continues to remain open. Appointments are required.

If this wasn’t enough, New Jersey ranked number one last week on influenza cases. So not only are we dealing with the global pandemic, now we have the flu that is moving quickly, and so, we’re encouraging people to make sure they get their flu shots.

So obviously, with all of this information that I’ve just shared, the state continues to remain at red visitor restrictions. I know that it’s very difficult. I’ve heard from many of you about how frustrating it is not to be able to get information. We continue to try and respond as best we can, but at the end of the day, the reality is that the volume is significant and we are doing our best to meet your needs and we’ll continue to do so….

Until we meet again, be well and stay safe.