In some ways, a number changed how we viewed the pandemic.

Early in the spread of COVID-19, the federal government made hospitals report how many of their beds were filled with patients suffering from the virus. News accounts — and often hospitals themselves — began sharing that tally with the public. 

The COVID count became a grim daily thermometer of how quickly the virus was coursing through a community.

Health experts say it became an important reality check.

“We thought that telling people the truth about how many patients we had would be the best way for the public to know how serious it was,” said Dr. Steven W. Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System.

But this month, what had become such an important number evaporated.

In another sign that the deadly pandemic has faded into a much less virulent endemic, federal health regulators let the reporting of that once-critical number go away. 

The University of Kansas Health System gave its last daily COVID count on its Morning Medical Update on May 1. The number of COVID patients in its health system had dwindled to four. At the height of the pandemic, the health system faced caring for some 250 COVID patients on a single day. 

“Our hospital was so full,” Stites recalled. “It’s not only that we were running out of beds for COVID. We were running out of beds for stroke or heart attack or infections.”

Nationally, hospitalizations for COVID have dropped to a record low of just under 5,100 patients. That compares to a high of almost 151,000 hospitalizations in January 2022.

While the COVID data are all trending in the right direction, some public health experts warn the toll of the virus could explode again if a new variant manages to duck existing immunity. And they worry that hospital reporting requirements going away could make it harder to spot a deadly turn at a national level.

In her popular Substack, Your Local Epidemiologist, Katelyn Jetelina noted that it was difficult for public health officials to get a national view of the pandemic because of the country’s fragmented health care system before the reporting requirement was put in place. Maintaining reporting requirements, she wrote, could help the country stay on top of COVID and future health emergencies.

“Preparedness is the name of the game,” Jetelina wrote. “We cannot slip back into the cycle of panic and neglect.”

Hospital COVID data reporting is still encouraged, but not mandatory. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a new rule that would require hospitals to report data even when the country isn’t in a health emergency. President Joe Biden ended the COVID national emergency last year.

But some health care providers say that resources used to meet reporting requirements could be better spent elsewhere as long as COVID data remain low.

At least on a regional level, emergency preparedness officials working through the Mid-America Regional Council say they stay on top of trends and would be aware of any emerging issues. 

The MARC Health Care Coalition sponsors a monthly call that includes area hospitals, first responders, public health officials and others.

“If we start to identify problems,” said coalition chair Steven Hoeger, “we address it through that monthly call.”

Hoeger, who serves as director of corporate emergency management and compliance at University Health, added that hospitals are obligated to let the state and local health departments know if they see patients with certain infectious diseases that could represent a public health threat.

“We would still be able to monitor that at a local level and determine if there’s rising volume,” he said.

Hospitals can still report data voluntarily, said Carolyn Wells, who chairs a regional hospital committee. And it’s possible federal regulators may insist on case counts. That national monitoring is important, she said, so officials know if something is only regional or if it will likely affect the whole country.

“By having it as a national report, they can keep track of where it’s coming from,” said Wells, the trauma and emergency preparedness manager at Liberty Hospital.

But whether or not the COVID counts continue as a daily gauge of public health, the change they sparked in how health care providers talk to the public and what information the public expects to receive will likely be permanent.

“The public has a lot of avenues to get information that were not there 10 years ago or even five years ago,” said Charlie Hunt, director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment. “There’s just a greater expectation now for information. And we have to be able to respond to that.”

Public health agencies feel an obligation, he said, to make sure they’re putting out accurate information to counter the mountains of inaccurate information that live on the internet.

Hospitals may be feeling the same pressure, said Rich Copp, a public relations executive at Issues Management Group in Boston. When COVID started, many hospitals stepped into the role of providing information directly to the public.

“COVID-19 was a turning point in how we talk to patients and get credible information to the public,” Copp said. “It stuck. Now we have these established channels.”

In Kansas City, for example, KU Health System began a daily news program in response to COVID. Doctors were swamped and the news media needed information, so the health system’s public relations staff started a daily 8 a.m. press conference.

In the beginning, they thought they’d do it for a few weeks — maybe months. What has now become a daily news program just began its fifth year.

“After a year, COVID turned into delta,” said Jill Chadwick, the medical system’s news director. “Delta morphed into omicron. I mean, it was never-ending. Vaccines were happening. It just seemed like every day, there was something the public needed to know.”

And soon, the hospital realized it was reaching well beyond local news media. Today, KU’s Morning Medical Update reaches journalists who share the content around the world. And the show has evolved from being almost all about COVID to featuring the hospital’s research and patient success stories. It has a following of regulars who just like medical stories, Chadwick said. 

On May 1, when Stites and Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious-disease doctor who often co-hosts the show, shared KU’s COVID count for the last time, they reminisced about the four years of COVID.

Providing accurate information to the public was as much their mission, they said, as treating their patients. If COVID numbers begin trending up, the health system said it would start sharing them again.

“I think we’ve shown and understand that we can pivot quickly if needed,” Hawkinson said.