Hospitalizations increase in southern US 1:04
(CNN) -
Covid-19 hospitalizations are reaching record highs in parts of the southern United States, and some patients are unable to receive the care they normally would.
Susan Walker has been calling hospitals in other states to try to get help for her husband, who was not vaccinated against COVID-19 and is now in a medically induced coma.
"He is on a ventilator and urgently needs ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) treatment that is not available at the hospital where he is staying," the Florida-based woman said Sunday.
"All beds are occupied by COVID-19 victims who are also receiving ECMO."
Delta variant could evolve, experts say 0:51
An ECMO treatment uses external machinery that can function like the heart and lungs.
It has been used with some seriously ill COVID-19 patients, including young adults.
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"We have searched every hospital from South Florida to the northern part of Florida" trying to find availability, Walker said.
"Transferring him to a hospital in Florida is almost impossible," he said.
What's different about the delta variant?
This is what is known
Hospitals in the southern United States full
Across the country, states are fighting to fend off the delta variant, the most contagious strain of coronavirus yet.
But the situation is particularly worrying in several southern states.
Louisiana set a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations last week.
Fauci supports that vaccination against covid is mandatory 0:23
Florida hospitalizations recently increased 13% above the state's previous peak on July 23, 2020, according to a survey by the Florida Hospital Association (FHA).
The FHA said it expects 60% of the state's hospitals to face a "critical staff shortage" by this week.
And at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, "we don't have beds. The emergency department is full of patients waiting to be admitted to the hospital," Chief of Staff Dr. Joseph Varon said Sunday morning.
"During the last 12 hours, we have lost more patients than ... in the last five to six weeks."
According to data released Sunday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 50.1% of the total US population is now fully vaccinated - more than 166 million people.
As of Sunday, Mississippi has fully vaccinated 35.2% of its residents.
That makes Alabama, with 34.8% of its residents fully vaccinated, the only state in the United States that has fully vaccinated less than 35% of its residents.
The seven-day average of doses administered per day is now 706,323, according to CDC data, and an average of 449,000 people are starting the vaccination schedule each day.
Florida leads US hospitalizations 4:31
More hospitalizations and deaths are expected
The United States now averages more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases every day, the highest level in nearly six months, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Because some COVID-19 cases can take days or weeks to lead to hospitalization or death, doctors are bracing for an ugly replay of 2020.
"It's bad. For me, this is déjà vu of what we had last year," Varon said.
"And the worst thing about this is that this was predictable. And this was preventable. So we're not just exhausted, we're upset. And we're upset that people aren't doing the right thing."
The vast majority of people who are hospitalized or die from COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week.
More than 99.9% of those fully vaccinated have not had a serious post-vaccination infection, according to the CDC
And Americans who have already had COVID-19 shouldn't assume they don't need an injection.
For adults previously infected with COVID-19, vaccines provide better protection against reinfection than natural immunity alone, according to a CDC study released Friday.
The study suggests that people who had COVID-19 in 2020 and were not vaccinated were more than twice as likely to be re-infected in May or June 2021 compared to people who also had COVID-19 but were later vaccinated for full.
"If you've had COVID-19 before, get vaccinated anyway," Walensky said Friday.
There is no minimum waiting time between COVID-19 recovery and vaccination, the CDC said.
"Getting the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and others," Walensky said, "especially as the more contagious delta variant spreads across the country."
Fauci: A more dangerous variant could appear 0:46
Children's hospitals are filling up too
Almost half the country is not fully vaccinated, including children under the age of 12 who are not yet eligible but are vulnerable to COVID-19.
Scientists say the delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox, and each infected person can infect eight to nine other people.
A baby with covid-19 is airlifted due to a shortage of beds at a hospital in Houston
Delta can also cause more serious illness than other coronavirus strains, according to studies cited in an internal CDC filing.
Now some hospitals are treating COVID-19 patients younger than before.
"Something very scary is happening now in the southern United States. We are seeing this massive increase in youth hospitalizations that we have never seen before in hospitals across the South," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Medicine. Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
"There are many, many young people, including, I'm sorry to say, a lot of children's hospital admissions. And, for the first time I can remember, we're starting to see pediatric intensive care units get overwhelmed, which I've never really seen before."
As of Tuesday, an average of 192 children with Covid-19 were admitted to U.S. hospitals every day for the past week, CDC data shows.
That's a 45.7% increase over the previous week in new daily hospitalizations for covid-19 patients ages 0-17.
In the Miami area, "our children's hospitals are completely overwhelmed," said Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert at Florida International University.
"Our pediatricians, the infirmary, the staff are exhausted. And the children are suffering," Marty said.
"It's absolutely devastating ... We have never seen numbers like this before."
In Texas, Ava Amira Rivera, an 11-month-old COVID-19 patient, had to be airlifted to a hospital about 200 miles away due to a shortage of pediatric beds in the Houston area.
None of the area's major pediatric hospitals had beds available, said Amanda Callaway, a spokeswoman for Harris Health System.
The baby's condition has since stabilized and she is no longer intubated.
Who might need booster doses first?
With more than 164 million Americans fully vaccinated, tens of thousands could contract COVID-19 later on, Walensky said.
Those who do get post-vaccination infections usually have mild or no symptoms.
By the end of July, more than 99.99% of fully vaccinated Americans had not had a COVID-19 infection that would have led to hospitalization, according to CDC data.
See on this map which countries have already approved a third dose of the covid-19 vaccine
The small fraction of post-vaccination infections that lead to hospitalization may include the immunosuppressed or elderly.
Those two groups may be among the first to receive an additional dose of the vaccine, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Because COVID-19 vaccines require an immune response to work, people who are immunosuppressed or taking immunosuppressive medications may not get adequate protection with a vaccine.
"We will almost certainly give those people a booster before we give it to the general population that has been vaccinated," Fauci said Sunday.
"And I think we should be doing it reasonably soon."
FDA May Design National Covid-19 Booster Vaccine Strategy By Early September
He said the next group that may need boosters before the general population is those over 60.
Fauci said the CDC is studying different age groups to see how long vaccines are effective for.
"As soon as they see that that level of durability of protection decreases, they will see the recommendation to vaccinate those people," he said.
Long covid victim: 'I didn't think I fit the profile'
Quentin Bowen said he made an appointment to get vaccinated but had to cancel it due to work.
The 41-year-old Nebraska farmer said he assumed delaying his vaccination wasn't a big deal.
"I didn't think I fit the profile of who (could) be attacked by covid," Bowen said Saturday.
"I was healthy. I was younger. And I was going to get (the vaccine). And I figured I'd been exposed before and never got it, so I thought I had time."
But Bowen fell ill with covid-19 in May.
He remembered going to the hospital and asking his friend to tell his children that he loved them.
"I knew he wouldn't be coming home that day. And he didn't know if he would ever come home," Bowen said.
He survived a pulmonary embolism, but three months later he is still battling complications.
Bowen urged Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible, when they still have the power to help preserve their health.
"Once you walk through the hospital door," he said, "everything slips out of hand."
CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas, Jessica Firger, and Matthew Hilk contributed to this report.