LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After one year since treating their first COVID-19 patient, UofL Health doctors reflected on the year it's been. Dr. Jason Smith, Dr. Sally Suliman, and UofL Health CEO Tom Miller said it's been one of the toughest years in health care. However, they all expressed relief in the "effective" COVID-19 vaccines. 

Numbers from UofL Health show that, as of March 8 this year, there have been 2,591 coronavirus patients admitted. There were 310 COVID-related deaths. That's nearly a 12% mortality rate. 

Smith said some general factors contribute, like a person's age and overall "baseline" health before contracting the virus. On the other hand, Suliman said there's just no predicting COVID-19's effect.

"I would say that there has been no pattern," Suliman said, "and that is what is so hard. You can't predict who's gonna do well. You can't predict who may have a poor outcome. You can't even predict who's gonna end up in the ICU and who isn't. So because of not knowing, you're on this sort of high alert all the time trying to decide where to put your resources."

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidelines to say fully-vaccinated people can gather amongst themselves without masks or social distancing. Smith says that while this signals restrictions loosening, he feels it best for those inoculated to keep the gatherings small and among low-risk or fully-vaccinated family.

"I do think that it is probably, you know, the first step in loosening up some of the guidelines. I think it is going to be very difficult to enforce," he said. "I'm not going to be checking everybody's vaccine card. As we move forward in the next few months, and we start to get more and more percentages of the population vaccinated, is when I think we can really start talking about loosening up these restrictions across the board."