Shown is a conference area that has been converted into a COVID-19 unit at Memorial Hospital Miramar
The US is now averaging 100,000 new COVID-19 infections a day, returning to a milestone last seen during the winter boom, yet another bleak reminder of how quickly the delta variant spread in the country. has gone. At the end of June, the US averaged about 11,000 cases a day. Now the number is 107,143.
It took the US nearly nine months to cross the 100,000 average case count in November before reaching about 250,000 in early January. Cases dropped in June, despite the vaccine being given to more than 70 percent of the adult population, but it took about six weeks to go back above 100,000.
The virus is spreading rapidly through unvaccinated populations, especially in the South where hospitals are overburdened.
Health officials fear that cases will continue to rise if more Americans do not adopt the vaccine.
Rochelle Valensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on CNN this week: “Our models show that if we don’t (vaccinate people), we could reach several million cases a day, as of January.” The beginning of our boom was similar.” .
The number of Americans hospitalized with the virus has also skyrocketed and has gotten so bad that many hospitals are scrambling to find beds for patients in remote locations.
Houston officials say the latest wave of COVID-19 cases is pushing the local health care system almost toward “breaking point,” resulting in some patients being transferred out of town for medical care. in which even one had to be carried. to North Dakota.
Dr. David Purse, who is health authority for the Houston Department of Health and EMS medical director, said some ambulances were waiting for hours at Houston-area hospitals to unload patients because there were no beds available. Purse said he feared this would lead to a longer response time to 911 medical calls.
“The health care system is almost at a breaking point right now… for the next three weeks, I don’t see any respite on what is happening in emergency departments,” Pers said on Thursday.
Last weekend, a patient in Houston had to be transferred to North Dakota for medical care. An 11-month-old girl with COVID-19 and who was having seizures had to be taken Thursday to a hospital 170 miles (274 kilometers) from Houston to Temple.
In Missouri, 30 ambulances and more than 60 medical personnel will be deployed across the state to help move COVID-19 patients to other areas if nearby hospitals are too full to accept them, So Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced on Friday.
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