Where Covid-19 Hospitalizations Rise in the United States

While the more contagious Delta variant sows more coronavirus infections among the unvaccinated in the countryit has also started sending more unprotected Americans to hospitals, straining health facilities in parts of the Midwest, West and South.

Hospitalizations for Covid-19 tend to increase in 45 states, although levels remain well below previous peaks. In parts of the country with relatively low vaccination rate, 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.

At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, in a county where just over a third of the population is fully vaccinated, staff say the increase in patient numbers this summer was almost five times faster than last fall. In just over a month, the number of Covid patients at the hospital rose from 26 to 115, and it briefly faced with a shortage of fans.

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 gone through this yet, 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 over 97% of patients who went to hospital with Covid-19 were not immunized.

And while cases of rupture and hospitalizations may occur 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 oldest in the country and lower rates among young people – also seem to have changed who comes to the hospital.

“We saw the elderly population as we had it before,” said Shannon Nachtigal, chief nurse at Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home, Ark. “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 look and you say to yourself, ‘Wow, these people don’t look much older than me,'” added Mr. Frederick, who is 48 years old. “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 every day is now lower than it was in January, the share of those admitted under the age of 60 has increased. In July, around 54% of new admissions were to people under the age of 60, and in early January it was 36%.

The ability of the Delta variant to spread may also be behind the changing demographics of people going to hospital 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, an inpatient physician 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 do,” she added. “It’s really heartbreaking.”