One day after the United States recorded its deadliest day yet from COVID-19 cases, a prominent Wood River Valley doctor expressed heightened concern about rising case counts and life-threatening medical complications caused by the virus.
Dr. Frank Batcha, a physician and chief of staff for St. Lukeâs Wood River, said Thursday that an anticipated post-Thanksgiving surge in COVID-19 cases in Blaine County has developed, with COVID-related hospitalizations increasing in recent days and two patients dying of COVID ailments.
The deaths, first reported by the state Department of Health and Welfare on Tuesday, were of a woman in her 70s and a man in his 90s, the eighth and ninth Blaine County patients to die of the disease. The South Central Public Health District stated that both patients had underlying conditions. Neither were residents in a long-term facility, according to the Health District, and neither were hospitalized prior to their deaths, St. Lukeâs said.