More than 100,000 people are hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States, a number that has not been registered since January, with an unprecedented wave of
pregnant women with serious complications
, as the country struggles with the delta variant and resistance from the population to be vaccinated.
The new cases grow precisely
among young people between 16 and 17 years old
, the group least likely to be vaccinated despite being able to do so as adults.
The southern states are the hardest hit:
more than 17,000 people
are hospitalized in Florida, which leads the national ranking with the highest number of serious illnesses and deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in this state;
followed by Texas with 14,000, according to a database from The Washington Post.
[Florida funeral homes face crisis amid rising coronavirus deaths]
Among serious cases, the number of pregnant women has tripled in recent weeks, specialists have indicated to the NBC News network.
"
None of us have ever seen this magnitude of seriously ill women
at the same time," said Akila Subramaniam, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the University of Alabama.
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Some pregnant women need respirators;
others, equipment known as ECMO to assist your extensively damaged heart and lungs.
So far,
131
pregnant women have died and more than 200 have lost their babies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The vast majority of these women were not vaccinated, according to experts.
In
Florida
, where more people die than ever before in the pandemic, 227 people a day, the collapse in some health centers has led to them having to turn away patients with other ailments.
"We
just don't have beds,
" Nitesh Paryani, a Tampa oncologist, who was forced to turn down a cancer patient, told CNN.
Chirag Patel, deputy chief medical officer at UF Health Jacksonville, a hospital system in northeast Florida, told The New York Times that hospitalized patients now tend to be younger with fewer previous health problems, and almost none of them are. vaccinated.
One of the hardest parts, Patel said, is having to inform families about the loss of an unvaccinated loved one.
"
It is such a foolish and ultimately avoidable way to die
," he said.
Across the country, not only young people present more cases, but also children and with serious consequences:
pediatric hospitalizations have reached 2,100
, exceeding 2,000 for the first time since August 2020.
[On video: The harsh images of a 3-year-old girl fighting COVID-19 in Oklahoma]
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The situation has pushed medical staff to the brink of collapse, with nurses quitting their jobs: Mississippi now has at least 2,000 fewer nurses than earlier this year, according to the state Hospital Association's Center for Quality and Workforce.
"It seems heroic," Nichole Atherton, a nurse at Singing River Ocean Springs Hospital, told CNN.
"But that's not what it is.
It's sweat, hard work, chaos and blood
. And it's hard to live in this every day and then come home and live a normal life," added Atherton, who resigned this month.
Pregnant women suffer "rapid deterioration"
In total, 109,773 cases of coronavirus have been reported among pregnant women during the pandemic, with 18,000 hospitalizations, according to the CDC.
But the cases have worsened in recent weeks.
At Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, intensive care units have treated more than a dozen pregnant women with COVID-19 in recent weeks, when there were typically only one or two a month.
"
His deterioration is faster
," Todd Rice, director of intensive care, told NBC News.
"They go faster from needing a little oxygen to, damn, needing a lot of support," he explained.
[A pregnant woman prayed for a miracle after falling ill with COVID-19. This was his message]
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Only 23% of pregnant women are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to official CDC figures.
"
A lot of people don't realize how easy it is to get this virus
and how, if you're pregnant, how seriously ill you can get," Brenna Hughes, chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Duke University in North Carolina, told NBC News.
Adolescents aged 16 and 17, the most vulnerable
In January, before mass vaccination, there were 151,000 new cases per day on average;
this Wednesday, the figure is 148,000.
Teens ages 16 and 17 have the highest rates of infection,
160 new cases per week
per 100,000 residents, among all age groups, according to a CNN analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC).
Among the different factors that make them more vulnerable is the fact that they interact the most, especially in the summer, and the high level of delta contagion.
"And younger people are less likely to get vaccinated," adds Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association in an interview with CNN.
Only 32% of 12-17 year olds are fully immunized.
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Going back to school this month increases the risk even more.
"
The sad reality is that we have a solution
that adequately protects teens 16 and older - the Pfizer vaccine approved for that age group," said Lori Tremmel Freeman, director of the National Association of Municipal Health Officials.
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The disagreement over the use of the mask has nevertheless generated problems in schools, such as one recorded this Wednesday at a Fort Lauderdale high school where a parent refused to wear a mask and reacted aggressively when a student questioned it.
[Follow our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic]
The incident is the latest in a series of
confrontations over school mask mandates
.
Last week, a parent in an Austin school district ripped a mask off a teacher's face.
A week earlier, a parent in California allegedly yelled at a school principal about the requirement and then hit a teacher.
With information from The Washington Post, CNN, NBC News and The New York Times.
