COVID-19 cases rise 312% over three weeks as hospitals reach maximum capacity

COVID-19 cases continue to rise rapidly in the United States as the country enters its fourth wave of the pandemic.

America recorded 25,141 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday with a seven-day moving average of 79,951, which is the highest average recorded since February 16.

It also marks a 312% increase from the 19,400 average recorded three weeks ago.

In addition, 71 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded on Sunday with a seven-day moving average of 341, the second day in a row the threshold of 300 was crossed.

This figure is a 45% increase from the previous three weeks and the largest since June 12.

Health officials say deaths haven’t increased as dramatically because people are now protected by vaccines, but the spread of India’s “Delta” variant is causing hospitalizations to rise in several states.

States such as Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri are reporting hospitals reaching capacity, with Florida even breaking its previous record of hospitalizations for Covid.

However, there are also bright spots. After weeks of delays in COVID-19 vaccinations, the pace is picking up, with the United States registering more than 700,000 injections five days in a row.

Florida continues to lead the country in COVID-19 cases with an average of 27,681 cases per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

That’s a record high, surpassing the previous record of 17,991 set on Jan.5, and represents a 342% increase from the average 6,492 cases reported two weeks ago, according to an analysis by DailyMail.com.

Hospitalizations also reached an all-time high with 10,207 hospitalized for COVID-19, according to data reported to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

This beats the previous record of 10,170 recorded on July 23, 2020.

Meanwhile, hospitals are overflowing. The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville announced on Sunday that it had exceeded its capacity of 304 COVID-19 authorized beds.

He has asked the Agency for Healthcare Administration to approve a plan for patients to occupy unlicensed beds until the wave ends, First Coast News reported.

Meanwhile at UF North in Jacksonville, the number of COVID-19 patients is again so high that some are occupying beds in the halls of the hospital’s emergency department

“We are taking more patients than we would normally take,” Marsha Tittle, a nurse at UF North, told the Florida Times-Union.

“My staff are wonderful. You go out, they are going to have a smile on their face and they are doing a great job. But there is a feeling of defeat, as if they are just defeated.

As of Monday, 58% of Floridians have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 49 are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Missouri continues to be another epicenter of COVID-19 with an average increase in cases of 36%, from 2,141 per day to 2,926 per day in the past two weeks, according to analysis by DailyMail.com.

Statewide, hospitalizations have increased in the past 14 days to 1,921, 41% from 1,357.

The state’s vaccination rate is lower than the national average with 49.1% of residents having received at least one dose and 41.5% fully vaccinated.

The outbreak has been mostly contained in the southwestern part of the state, where Branson and Springfield are located, and where vaccination rates are lowest, with only about a third fully vaccinated.

CoxHealth Springfield recorded 187 new coronavirus patients on Sunday, a record and a surprising increase from the 28 patients seen eight weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Mercy Springfield also reached a record 147 patients, 93 percent of whom were unvaccinated.

“I cannot understand the motivations of people who denigrate healthcare providers and diminish the reality of this pandemic,” CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards wrote on Twitter.

In Louisiana, cases rose 21%, from 2,006 to 2,431 per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

Meanwhile, several hospitals say they are running out of intensive care beds as the number of patients rose from 563 to 1,740 in the past two weeks, according to health department data.

At least two hospitals – Our Lady of Lourdes and Oschner Lafayette General – no longer have intensive care beds, KATC ABC 3 reported.

Administrators at Notre-Dame de Lourdes are converting regular beds outside of intensive care to cope with the increasing number of patients.

“Part of that and why it’s such a high percentage of our 70 patients is that we are seeing an increased severity of this disease in those people who, many of them, are otherwise perfectly healthy,” Dr. Henry Kaufman, acting chief medical officer at Notre-Dame de Lourdes, said at a press conference.

Dr Amanda Logue, chief medical officer at Ochsner Lafayette General, Oschner Lafayette General told KATC ABC 3 that the hospital currently has 97 COVID-19 patients, up from 10 just four weeks ago.

Amid the surge in cases and hospitalizations, there is good news: The United States is finally starting to see the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations increase.

As of Saturday, more than 816,000 injections were administered, marking the fifth consecutive day that the country has distributed more than 700,000 injections.

In addition, the seven-day moving average is now above 662,000, which is the highest number seen since early July.

As of Monday morning, 69.9% of U.S. adults had received at least one dose of the vaccine, meaning the country is on track to meet President Joe Biden’s 70% target, albeit nearly a month after its July 4 deadline.

In a CNN State of the Union appearance on Sunday, Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said vaccination rates had increased 56% across America in the two last few weeks.

He told host Jake Tapper he hopes the threat of the Delta variant has helped convince hesitant Americans to get vaccinated.

“It can be a tipping point for those who have hesitated to say, ‘OK, it’s about time,’ Collins said.

“I hope that’s what happens. This is what desperately needs to happen if we are to put this Delta variant back in its place.