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As summer draws to a close, the highly contagious Delta variant means COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide, particularly among unvaccinated people, and particularly in states with rates vaccination rates are lower than the national average. Over the past week, the increase in COVID cases has reached crisis proportions in these five states, experts say. Read on to find out more and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You Have A ‘Long’ COVID And You May Not Even Know It.
Florida last week recorded its all-time high for COVID deaths, and the mayor of Orlando urged residents to conserve water use so that liquid oxygen, normally used to treat water , can be diverted to hospitals to treat COVID patients. Dr Vincent Hsu, executive director of infection prevention and epidemiologist at AdventHealth, called the state’s situation a “crisis of unprecedented proportions.”
Former FDA commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb on Sunday called Florida “the epicenter of the epidemic in this country.” He noted that the state’s most recent surge has leveled off in all but one age group: children aged 6 to 19. “It is the only category that continues to expand and develop very rapidly.” He said schools could become “dangerous” environments if the disease continues to spread.
Last week, the state reported its biggest shortage of intensive care beds since the start of the pandemic, and the Delta variant is estimated to infect unvaccinated Texans at rates eight times higher than previous variants. “We are entering the worst wave of numbers,” Dr. Mark Casanova, a member of the Texas Medical Association’s COVID-19 task force, told the Texas Tribune. “This is the fourth round of what should have been a three-round fight. We are very concerned that the numbers game is overwhelming us.”
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Alabama is running out of intensive care beds and set a state record for the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19, NPR News reported last Thursday. “We’ve never been here before. We are really now in uncharted territory in terms of intensive care bed capacity,” said Donald Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association. told the WSFA 12 News last Tuesday. Only 12% of hospitalized COVID patients are fully immunized.
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This month, Mississippi set a new one-day record for COVID hospitalizations and patients placed in intensive care and ventilation. As of Thursday, seven intensive care beds were available statewide for 96 patients who needed them. “We are clearly at the worst time of the pandemic that we have seen throughout, and it continues to get worse,” Mississippi health official Dr. Thomas Dobbs told NBC News.
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The state has seen an “astronomical” increase in COVID-19 cases, said Governor John Bel Edwards, who said CNN infections were on the rise especially among young people. In the past two days, 28% of all new cases we report are in children aged 0 to 17, ”he said on Friday.
Dr Catherine O’Neal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, told The Advocate her hospital was bracing for a “breach of the health care safety net.” She said if the number of cases did not decrease, hospitals would not have the resources to treat patients who suffer from daily injuries.
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Follow the basics and help end this pandemic, no matter where you live: get vaccinated as soon as possible; if you live in an area with low vaccination rates, wear an N95 facial mask, do not travel, do not go far away, avoid large crowds, do not go inside with people you are not safe from (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene and To protect your life and the lives of others, do not visit any of these 35 places where you’re most likely to catch COVID.
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