Rising infections among unvaccinated COVID people worry US

The cases of coronavirus continue to increase across the United States, as the country faces its fourth wave of the pandemic and hospitals try not to collapse compared to the growing number of patients hospitalized daily.

Authorities on Thursday recorded 147,545 new infections with the virus with a seven-day moving average of 123,748. And yesterday the number rose to more than 155,000 people infected. This represents an increase of 181 percent from the average of 43,890 recorded three weeks earlier and the highest number observed since February 3. As deaths continue to rise, levels remain well below previous highs.

The United States recorded 769 virus-related deaths yesterday with a seven-day moving average of 528, a 100% increase from the average of 264 reported 21 days earlier. However, that represents half of the deaths that were recorded in the November 2020 outbreak before COVID-19 vaccines became available.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations are also increasing nationwide with more than 81,000 patients hospitalized with the virus, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Up to one-third of all hospital patients in eight states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina. Tennessee and Texas: infected with the virus Among the states, there are 43,833 hospital patients, or 54% of all hospital patients in the country when they represent only a quarter of the population.

In the past week, Florida had more cases of the coronavirus than the 30 states with the lowest case rates combined. And Florida and Texas alone accounted for nearly 40% of new hospitalizations nationwide, ” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said at a conference. press at the White House Thursday. .

In Texas, there are currently 11,468 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, a 4.5-fold increase from the roughly 2,500 seen in mid-July.. More than 90% of the state’s intensive care beds are full and nearly half are dedicated to COVID-19 patients, according to HHS data. Several hospitals have temporarily canceled elective surgeries and procedures to help manage the rising number of COVID-19 patients.

“What’s concerning about the trajectory is that we are seeing a much faster increase in the number of cases,” said Dr. Trish Perl, chief of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “We are seeing unvaccinated people who are younger compared to the first in the pandemic when we have seen many hospitalizations over 65. Now the biggest and biggest increases we’re seeing are in people between the ages of 18 and 49, and a lot of those people don’t have any underlying illnesses, ”he noted.

According to the Texas Hospital Association (THA), more than 2,500 medical workers from other states come to Texas to help exhausted doctors and nurses. This help couldn’t come fast enough. Many hospitals have already closed non-essential services and they are diverting patients to increase staff capacity, ” Ted Shaw, president of the THA, said in a statement. “The hospital industry is losing frontline staff, especially nurses, due to exhaustion and illness; many have left the profession due to the extreme nature of the work during a relentless pandemic ”. Alabama is seeing the number of COVID-19 patients increase exponentially, with a 12-fold increase from 213 patients on July 4 to 2,596 on Wednesday.

This means that the State finds that the number of hospitalized patients is gradually approaching the peak of 3,100 recorded in January. State health official Dr Scott Harris said he expects the number of hospitalizations to surpass the January peak within the next week. “We need the people of Alabama to understand that we are in a very difficult position right now,” Harris said at a press conference Thursday.

“We are again seeing as many cases as we have ever seen before. Up to yesterday we had almost 2,400 people in the hospital. As we add more people to our hospitals, we will surpass our all-time high since January over the next three to four days. This strained our hospital situation. We only have about five percent of our critical care beds available statewide. Many facilities, especially in the southern part of the state, do not have intensive care beds at the moment, ”added the expert.

In the state of Louisiana, which had a record number of patients since Aug. 2, there was another with 2,617 hospital patients on Wednesday. In the past two weeks, hospitalizations have increased 82% from 1,433 on July 27, according to HHS data. According to the state’s health department, 90 percent of hospital patients are not vaccinated. Louisiana also suffers from a severe shortage. Governor John Bel Edwards last week said more than 40 hospitals had requested additional workers and more than 6,000 positions were open statewide.

Hospitals in the southwestern state have diverted ambulances to Texas in hopes of finding a facility with available beds. And because hospitals are sent elsewhere or stuck outside emergency rooms to free up beds, they cannot respond to other emergencies. “Some hospitals turn patients away because of their inability to care for them. In Lake Charles, we had to go to Texas. Heart attacks, strokes and car accidents have never gone away. None of that has disappeared, ” Dr Chuck Burnell, chief medical officer of the Acadian Ambulance, told the Guardian.

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