By Heather Hollingsworth and Richard Alonso-Zaldivar - The Associated Press
Vaccination is starting to rise in some states where COVID-19 cases are growing, White House officials reported Thursday, but hospitals are already running out of space due to the delta variant, which is "spreading with incredible efficiency. "
The White House coronavirus pandemic response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that several states with the highest proportions of new infections have seen their residents vaccinated at rates higher than the nation's average. in general.
Officials cited
Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada
as examples.
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"The fourth wave is real,
and the numbers are pretty scary right now," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said on a New Orleans radio show.
Edwards, who is a Democrat, added: "There is no question that we are going in the wrong direction and that we are going fast."
Louisiana reported 5,388 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the third highest level since the pandemic began.
Hospitalizations rose sharply in the past month, from 242 on June 19 to 913 in the last report.
15 new deaths were reported Thursday.
Only
36% of the Louisiana population is fully vaccinated,
according to data from the state Department of Health.
Nationally, 56.3% of citizens have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Aly Neel, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health, said the state has seen "a small increase" in vaccinations recently.
Warner Thomas, CEO of Ochsner Health, said the health system had seen a 10-15% increase in people seeking vaccinations in the past two weeks.
In Missouri, which ranks second after Arkansas and Louisiana in the number of new cases per capita over the past 14 days, authorities have implemented
a vaccine incentive program that includes $ 10,000 prizes for 900 lottery winners.
This state lags behind the national average by about 10 percentage points for people who have received at least one dose.
Hospitals in the Springfield area are under pressure: They are reaching nearly as high a patient count as in the worst of the pandemic.
"Young, relatively healthy, and unvaccinated. If this describes you, consider getting immunized,"
Erik Frederick, managing director of Mercy Hospital Springfield, tweeted, noting that half of COVID-19 patients are between the ages of 21 and 59 years and only 2% of that group is vaccinated.
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"I don't want to keep risking my life just because people don't want to get vaccinated or listen to what health professionals recommend," said Pascaline Muhindura, a registered nurse who has worked with coronavirus patients for more than a year.
“Many of them don't even believe in COVID-19 to begin with.
It is incredibly frustrating.
You're helping someone who doesn't even believe their illness is real,
"Muhindura said.
Jason Wilson, an emergency room physician at Tampa General Hospital, has also watched the rise in cases with frustration.
Unlike earlier in the pandemic, when many patients were 70 years old, he has seen
the average age of patients drop to the mid-40s.
“I spent a lot of time this fall and last summer saying, 'We have to do these things, these social mitigation strategies, until we get that vaccine.
Just hang on, "Wilson said.
Hospitals were initially hopeful as cases declined.
But then, he said, "things just went flat."
Tyson Foods workers receive COVID-19 vaccinations from health officials in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.Melissa Melvin / AP Images for Tyson Foods
In the conservative state of Utah, hospitals are also filling up again as the virus spreads among the unvaccinated.
Wednesday recorded
the highest number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in five months.
State health officials are again pleading with residents to get vaccinated, as
Utah's intensive care units have reached 81.5% capacity.
There are 295 people who are hospitalized for the virus in the state, the highest since February.
"This delta variant right now is being
concentrated in mostly unvaccinated people,"
said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
The variant, which was first registered in India, represents about 83% of genetically identified coronavirus samples in the US It is the predominant strain in all regions of the country and continues to
"spread with incredible efficiency,"
said the director. of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, told reporters at the White House.
The mutation is more aggressive and much more transmissible, he added: "It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses that we know of."
"We are at another crucial moment in this pandemic," he warned, "we need to unite as one nation."
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The CDC has not changed its guidance that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks.
But in Georgia, Atlanta public schools announced Thursday that they will implement a universal face mask policy in all school buildings in the system when fall classes begin.
Only 18% of students and 58% of employees in Atlanta schools are fully vaccinated (the vaccine is not yet available for those under 12, and it won't be until at least mid-winter).
"Given our low vaccination rates and increasing community spread,
the CDC recognizes that wearing masks universally would be appropriate
," the school system said in a statement.