Miscellaneous
According to one doctor, medical staff at local hospitals are exhausted as they care for the latest wave of COVID-19 patients -- more than twice the number who were hospitalized in the peak surge last spring. Dr. Damanpaul Sondhi, a pulmonologist at Rochester Regional Health, said there are enough beds, thanks to the opening of additional floors at the new Sands Constellation Center for Critical Care. But he said they're running out of nurses and respiratory therapists to meet the current patient caseload. "We are working 12-hour shifts and keeping people who are supposed to (have) time off as a backup," he said. "We have seen a couple of our colleagues get sick. Fortunately, they were sick for a few days; they had mild illness." Sondhi said he is seeing a younger population of patients who have COVID-19 compared to nine months ago. He said there are 10% to 15% percent fewer patients on ventilators relative to last spring, partly because they are younger and less likely to have