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As the most contagious delta variant sows more coronavirus infections among the nation’s unvaccinated, it has also started sending more unprotected Americans to hospital, straining health centers in some parts. of the Midwest, West and South.
COVID-19-related hospitalizations tend to increase in 45 states, although levels remain well below previous peaks. In areas of the country where vaccination rates are relatively low, including Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Nevada, hospitalizations have increased more rapidly.
Hospital staff and health officials in these areas say the increase came quickly and unexpectedly, due to the more aggressive delta variant, low immunization coverage, and their communities returning to social activities. pre-pandemic life.
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At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, in a county where just over a third of the population is fully immunized, staff say the increase in patient numbers this summer has been almost five times faster than last fall. In just over a month, the hospital’s COVID patient count rose from 26 to 115, and it briefly faced a shortage of ventilators.
And now, with 155 COVID patients, the hospital is well past its last peak and expects to see more than 200 patients by early August. To prepare, he is preparing a third intensive care unit for patients with COVID-19.
“I think any community that has low immunization rates and hasn’t experienced this, better prepare,” said Erik Frederick, executive director of Mercy Hospital Springfield. “Because what we’re seeing with this delta variant is not an ‘if’, it’s a ‘when’.
Hospital and state officials across the country report that a large majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are not vaccinated. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 97% of patients who have gone to hospital with COVID-19 have not been immunized.
And while groundbreaking cases and hospitalizations can arise for those who are vaccinated, officials say these patients tend to be less sick because vaccines provide strong protection against serious illness and death.
Vaccination schedules – and high coverage rates among the country’s oldest and lower rates among young people – also seem to have changed who comes to the hospital.
“We saw the elderly population as before,” said Shannon Nachtigal, chief nurse at Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Arkansas. “But with this increase, they’re definitely more of a younger group – people in their 30s and 40s.”
In Mercy Springfield, Missouri, just over half of the patients are under the age of 60.
“You walk through the intensive care units, and you just look, and you’re like, ‘Wow, these people don’t look much older than me,’ added Frederick, who is 48. “It’s a bit alarming to see. “
National data shows a similar change. While the total number of people newly admitted to hospital with COVID-19 each day is lower than it was in January, the share of people admitted under the age of 60 has increased. In July, around 54% of new admissions were for people under the age of 60, and in early January it was 36%.
The delta variant’s ability to spread may also be behind the changing demographics of people hospitalized with COVID.
“If it is more transmissible, it is more likely to be transmitted to healthy people as well as to less healthy people,” said Dr Thomas Tsai, assistant professor of health policy at the ‘Harvard University. “You can have an increase in hospitalizations just because you put more people at risk. “
But with the vaccine readily available to most Americans, hospital staff say it’s frustrating to see people of all ages in pain when there is now a weapon to fight back.
“It makes me so sad that we’re doing this over again because it’s so preventable at this point,” said Dr. Rachel C. Keech, a hospital doctor serving the eastern Missouri area of Mercy Hospital, who helped the Mercy Springfield location in recent weeks. .
“The first three waves, we didn’t have this great vaccine tool, and now we have,” she added. “It’s really heartbreaking.”
© 2021 The New York Times Company
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