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Deaths and COVID-19 cases in the United States are back to levels not seen since last winter, erasing months of progress and potentially strengthening President Joe Biden’s argument for his sweeping new vaccination demands.
The cases – driven by the delta variant combined with the resistance of some Americans to be vaccinated – are concentrated mainly in the South.
As one-time hot spots like Florida and Louisiana improve, infection rates skyrocket in Kentucky, Georgia and Tennessee, fueled by kids now back in school, mask restrictions loose and low immunization levels.
The dire situation in some hospitals is starting to resemble the January infection peak: canceled surgeries at hospitals in Washington state and Utah. Serious staff shortages in Kentucky and Alabama. A lack of beds in Tennessee. Full or overcapacity intensive care units in Texas.
The deterioration of the image nine months after the start of the country’s vaccination campaign has angered and frustrated health professionals who see heartache as preventable. The vast majority of the dead and those in hospital have not been vaccinated, which has turned out to be a hard lesson for some families.
“The problem now is that we have tried to educate on the basis of science, but I think most of the education that is happening now is based on tragedy, personal tragedy,” said the Dr. Ryan Stanton, emergency physician in Lexington, Kentucky.
In Kentucky, 70% of state hospitals – 66 out of 96 – are reporting critical staff shortages, the highest level yet during the pandemic, the governor said.
“Our hospitals are on the verge of collapse in many communities,” said Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky Public Health Commissioner.
The United States averages over 1,800 COVID-19 deaths and 170,000 new cases per day, the highest levels since early March and late January, respectively. And both numbers have increased over the past two weeks.
The country is still well below the terrifying peaks reached in January, when it averaged around 3,400 deaths and a quarter of a million cases per day.
The United States dispenses about 900,000 vaccines per day, up from 3.4 million per day in mid-April. On Friday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory group will meet to determine whether the United States should start giving booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine.
On a positive note, the number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 appears to be leveling off or even dropping to around 90,000, or roughly where it was in February.
Last week, the president ordered all employers of more than 100 workers to require weekly vaccinations or tests, a move affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers in healthcare facilities who receive federal Medicare or Medicaid will also need to be fully immunized.
“We read and hear about and we see the stories of people hospitalized, of people on their death beds among the unvaccinated over the past few weeks,” Biden said in announcing the rules. “This is an unvaccinated pandemic.”
The demands met with resistance and threats of prosecution from Republicans.
Arizona reported 117 deaths on Tuesday, the highest number in a single day since last February. Tennessee now ranks first in the United States for the number of new cases per capita. Hundreds of students there have been forced into quarantine. Some schools have closed due to a lack of staff. Others have asked to switch to distance learning.
But measures to contain the virus have met with opposition. Last week, a high school student in Tennessee who spoke at a school board meeting in favor of a mask warrant was heckled by adults as he spoke about his grandmother dying from the virus.
Stanton, the Kentucky emergency physician, said he has admitted families where the delta variant has spread through generations, especially if older members are not vaccinated.
“Now in Kentucky, a third of the new cases are under the age of 18,” he said. Some kids took it home from summer camp and broadcast it to the rest of the family, and now, “between daycare and schools and school activities, and friends getting together, there’s so many exhibitions “.
In Alabama, hundreds of COVID-19 patients are filling intensive care units, and a hospital has contacted 43 others in three states to find a specialized cardiac intensive care bed for Ray Martin DeMonia. It wasn’t early enough. The 73-year-old man died on September 1.
“In honor of Ray, please get the vaccine if you haven’t, in an effort to free up resources for non-COVID emergencies,” his family pleaded in his obituary.
In Hidalgo County, Texas, along the Mexican border, about 50 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 on a given day in July. By early August, the number had climbed to over 600.
“In July, we were almost celebrating. We didn’t know much, ”said Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo County public health authority. The situation has improved, with just under 300 people in hospital on Monday, but intensive care units still have a capacity above 90%, Melendez said.
The biggest increase over the summer occurred in states with low immunization rates, particularly in the South, where many people depend on air conditioning and breathe recirculated air, said Linsey Marr, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. She said states further north could see increases as the onset of cold sends people indoors.
Immunization rates are not as low in some northern states, but “there are still a lot of unvaccinated people out there. Delta will find them, ”said Marr.
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Associated Press editors Ken Sweet, Kimberlee Kruesi, Adrian Sainz, and Tali Arbel contributed to this report.
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