'These are the darkest days of the pandemic,' says Louisiana hospital director

Can your employer require you to be vaccinated?

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(CNN) -

The ICU at Louisiana's largest hospital is on edge with COVID-19 patients, while others experiencing symptoms were waiting for a bed on Monday, an official said.

Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center Medical Director Catherine O'Neal said there were 23 names on the waiting list when an ICU slot opened.

"There are people with chest pain sitting in an emergency room right now, while their families sit in the waiting room, wringing their hands and calling everyone they know," to admit them to an ICU, said O 'Neal, during a press conference on Monday.

Just over two weeks ago, the Baton Rouge hospital had 36 COVID-19 patients, O'Neal said.

The number is now 155.

"No diagnosis should take up a quarter of your hospital," O'Neal said.

"We no longer believe that we are providing adequate care to anyone, because these are the darkest days of the pandemic."

• ANALYSIS |

  The tragedy of the Covid-19 victims who said no to the vaccine

O'Neal said the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19 is vaccination, but that's not happening fast enough, so people should wear face masks, too.

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Hindy Bogner Orenstein, a Maryland nurse, talks to Bren Ingle, a nurse from Chattanooga, Tennessee, as nearly three dozen healthcare workers from across the country arrive to help supplement the staff at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, in Baton Rouge on August 2, 2021.

Louisiana is one of five states, along with Florida, Texas, California and Missouri, accounting for nearly half of the new cases reported last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

As the most transmissible delta variant spreads and cases rise, hospitals are once again filling up with COVID-19 patients across the country.

In many, patients are younger and sicker than before, doctors say.

The seven-day average of new daily cases of coronavirus increased by more than 40% from the previous week, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday (CDC, for its acronym in English), Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

"While we desperately want to end this pandemic, Covid-19 is clearly not done with us. Therefore, our battle should last a little longer," Walensky said.

With vaccination rates on the rise, but still below where they need to be to slow or stop the spread of the virus, many local leaders are turning to face masks to protect their populations.

The CDC updated its guidance last week, advising even fully vaccinated people to wear a mask in areas with substantial or high transmission.

That guide covers more than 90% of the US population, about 300 million people, according to an analysis of CNN data released Monday by the CDC.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards temporarily reinstated the state's mask-wearing mandate for all people 5 years of age and older, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, when indoors and in public.

The mandate goes into effect on Wednesday.

"No one should be in the misunderstanding that this is just another increase. We've already had three of these, this is the worst we've had so far," Edwards said.

• Is it legal to require vaccination against covid-19?

  In many circumstances, yes

State health official Dr. Joseph Kanter said he anticipates Louisiana will reach the highest number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients at any point in the pandemic on Tuesday.

"If we intend to prioritize the things that are important to us, like keeping our children in school and in face-to-face classes, and keeping our economy growing by keeping businesses open, wearing a mask is the best way to ensure that. So please take this mask order seriously, both in your personal life and in your professional life, "said Kanter.

Fauci: Post-vaccination infections are not as alarming as they seem

What contraindications would the vaccine against covid-19 have?

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Reports of infections among vaccinated people have caused some concern among people, but experts say they are not as alarming as they seem.

"Vaccines are doing exactly what we ask them to do when it comes to keeping you out of the hospital, from serious illness, and certainly preventing your death," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at a briefing at the White House on Monday.

The vaccines provide an eight-fold reduction in people getting the disease and a 25-fold reduction in COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths, Fauci said.

"An important point to mention is the higher the percentage of people who are vaccinated, even with a high degree of protection, the higher the absolute number of post-vaccination infections. But that is not the critical number. The critical number is what is the proportion among vaccinated of people who ... are contracting post-vaccination infections, and that's the critical one, "Fauci added.

Walensky provided some details on what that ratio looks like: of the tens of thousands of people likely exposed in an outbreak involving Provincetown, Massachusetts, he pointed to 346 confirmed post-vaccination infections.

"During the summer, some cities in Barnstable County can have up to 240,000 visitors per month," Walensky noted.

Some of those people will become infected even if they get vaccinated, Fauci said.

"You can expect post-vaccination infections," he said.

"Most of these infections will be asymptomatic or mild," he added.

"The bottom line of what we're saying is ... Get vaccinated. I say it every time," Fauci said.

• Reasons not to get the covid-19 vaccine that don't make sense: we debunk the myths of our audience

USA reaches vaccination goal one month late

By Monday, the U.S. had vaccinated 70% of adults with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said on Twitter.

This is the goal the Biden administration originally set for July 4, making it about a month behind that deadline.

Although it happened later than the administration wanted, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said reaching the milestone remains an important step.

"It will help protect communities. It will help protect families and save more lives. But we have said from the beginning, even when we set this goal, our work would not be finished even when we reach it. We are moving forward," he continued.

The CDC reported Sunday that 816,203 additional doses were administered, the fifth consecutive day the agency recorded more than 700,000 vaccinations administered.

The current average of doses delivered over seven days is 662,529 per day, the highest average since July 7.

CNN's Rebekah Riess, Deidre McPhillips, Maggie Fox, Ralph Ellis and Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.

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