COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise across the nation and at home, and a local front-line hero is finding himself closer to the fight against coronavirus than ever before.

News 12 was all set to talk to Dr. William Begg about how Vassar Brothers Medical Center was handling the second wave as the phone rang - and he found out that his father was in the ICU and had COVID-19.

"COVID is so prevalent. It's affecting everyone. It's just a matter of how close to you, if it's not affecting you," says Begg, who is the VP of medical affairs at Vassar Brothers.

His dad is one of Nuvance Health's latest patients.

"He's the type of person who would have died back in March and April because we didn't have all these treatments. He's still not out of the woods by any stretch.. but that's the difference this time around," he says.

So far, this time around, Dr. Begg says the hospital's second wave game plan is working, with convalescent plasma, Remdesivir, and anticoagulants being some of the key treatments on a microscopic level.

He adds that they are also putting fewer people on respirators compared to the spring.

"It's keeping people off a respirator because once they go on, statistically, there's a 50% chance they're not going to get off," he says.

As for Dr. Begg, the enemy is still the same and the fight continues, but it just got personal.

"I can feel the pain of those patients' family members who have a loved one with COVID, too. So, it makes us here at Vassar Brothers and me in particular want to redouble my efforts to make sure we have the best processes available," he says.