On Wednesday, there were 100,317 people hospitalized with the virus, more than double the 48,851 who were in hospital on the same day last year.
Covid-19 hospitalizations have increased in the United States for about seven weeks, since early July. They have almost tripled in the last month and only grew by 10% last week.
Florida has been particularly hard hit with the worst per capita rate in the country (about 80 hospitalizations per 100,000 people), followed by Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana, each with more than 55 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, according to HHS data.
“I had to remove an oncology patient who needed emergency treatment,” Florida oncologist Dr. Nitesh Paryani told CNN. “For the first time in sixty years of history of treating my family’s cancer, we had to divert someone … We just didn’t have a bed. There was just no space in the hospital to care for the patient.”
Paryani said his Tampa emergency room had recently waited twelve hours.
In New Mexico, Acting Secretary of Health Dr. David Scrase said that if nothing changes, the state is on track to meet crisis care standards next week to accommodate the crisis. continued increase in cases.
Scrase said Covid-19 intensive care hospitalizations have increased so rapidly that officials have trouble creating accurate graphics to illustrate it.
“Because we have over 100% capacity, these beds fill up before we have time to make the map,” he said.
Not only are the gross figures significantly worse than last year, but the situation is made even more tragic with the protection measures available since then, according to Dr. committee, he told CNN.
“Last August, we had a totally susceptible population and we didn’t have a vaccine. Now, we have half the country vaccinated and many have already become naturally infected, which is protective,” Offit said. “But still, the numbers are worse … the delta variant is a big game changer.”
Some leaders change tactics, others shrink
As cases have grown in much of the country, some leaders have implemented measures to mitigate the spread, while others have pushed back such measures.
Officials in Baltimore County, Maryland, declared a local state of emergency Tuesday after the seven-day Covid-19 case rate jumped 370% since July.
“While we have made undeniable progress in our fight against this deadly virus, the rapid emergence of the Delta variant has made it clear that we need access to all the tools in our toolbox in order to respond to it,” he said. County Executive Johnny Olszewski said in a statement.
In Maui, Hawaii, Mayor Michael Victorino urged residents and visitors to respond to takeoff cases and hospitalizations by avoiding unnecessary activities for at least three weeks. Victorino is also asking Governor David Ige to approve new mandatory restrictions on the size of the collection.
“This is not rocket science, everyone. It’s really simple,” Victorino said Tuesday. “We need to step up it again.”
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot joined many other leaders who have announced mandates for government employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the governors of Texas and Florida have doubled their stances against vaccination warrants and masks.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Wednesday to extend the current policy banning vaccination warrants by “any government entity” statewide, according to a statement from his office.
And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who previously issued an executive order banning mask warrants from schools, reiterated Wednesday that school districts imposing mask warrants “violate state law.”
“We believe parents are better placed to make that decision and if these entities violate state law … there are consequences,” DeSantis said, answering questions from reporters.
Unprecedented increase in children
With no vaccines available for children under 12 and the establishment of schools across the country, experts are concerned about the growing number of infections among children.
Texas Children’s Hospital is experiencing an unprecedented increase in coronavirus cases, with a record number of children hospitalized for the virus, and children are getting sicker than before, said Dr. Jim Versalovic, acting pediatrician in chief of the Houston-based hospital system. CNN Wednesday.
“We have broken new records on the rise of the Delta,” Versalovic said. “We had reached the maximum of more than 900 cases in one week, in early January 2021. That was our winter high. We have now surpassed 1,300 cases in one week,” Versalovic said.
Earlier this year and last year, many children who tested positive for coronavirus had mild symptoms or no symptoms, he said.
“What we are seeing now are more symptomatic children and children with fever, congestion, fatigue and other very prominent symptoms,” including coughing, he said. “A higher proportion of children infected with the Delta variant present with symptomatic infections, with remarkable symptomatology,” he added. “We have seen more infants and young children who had symptomatic infection and were hospitalized with Covid-19.”
And in Louisiana, the state health department confirmed Wednesday that a child under the age of 1 died from Covid-19, the first death of a child who was young in the state in more than six months, said Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee reminded parents Wednesday that masks are the best tool to protect their children from the spread.
“All parents can have their children wear a mask to school, as a tool to mitigate the spread, to make sure your child is in school more days than not,” the governor said.
Last week, Lee signed an executive order giving parents the option to choose their children from a school mask warrant if a school board or health board enforces it.
Deidre McPhillips, Lauren Mascarenhas, Kiely Westhoff, Andy Rose, Carma Hassan, Keith Allen, Melissa Alonso, Kate Conerly, Maggie Fox and CNN’s Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.