Leaders of Triad health care systems ask for help from the community

The leaders of the Triad's three largest health care systems came together Monday to urge the community to help stop the spread of COVID-19.  

The CEOs of Cone Health, Novant Health, and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist held a joint press briefing in which they expressed the gravity of the current COVID surge.

Cone Health CEO Dr. Mary Jo Cagle says this is a critical time.

“Our health systems are being threatened because of the rising volume of COVID-19," she says. "Our ability to care for our communities are being threatened. We are seeing ever-increasing numbers of patients both in our EDs [emergency departments] and in our hospitals and we're seeing increasing numbers of our employees becoming ill.”

Cagle says that the rising number of cases is affecting broader community infrastructure, with EMS personnel, firefighters, and police getting ill.

In order to help the health care system provide services to the community, Cagle and others stressed the importance of masking, vaccination, boosters, and social distancing.