Patients with coronavirus are in high numbers in intensive care units across the country. This is even though hospitals have not reached their peak yet.
According to Dr. Jyotir Medhta, the medical director of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s ICU, 38 patients are usually accommodated in these units. Doctors and nurses might only have two or three very sick patients. The ICU was home to 50 COVID-19 patients on Wednesday. About half of these patients rely on ventilators for breathing.
Mehta stated that she doesn’t believe the country has ever seen so many people in critical illness, or as many deaths at once.
Talking to relatives can be difficult, he said. He said, “They are grasping at every hope and you’re trying telling them, Look, it’s terrible.'” “You must tell them that your loved ones are not going to make it.”
Top health officials in New Mexico warned Wednesday that the state was about a week away rationing its health care. In a single day, more than 20% of coronavirus patients needed hospital care jumped.
Dr. David Scrase, Secretary of State Health and Human Services warned that “We’re going have to decide who gets care and whom doesn’t,” “And that’s not what we want.”
Idaho’s state leaders asked residents to get involved in keeping medical facilities open.
On Wednesday, Kentucky and Texas reported having more COVID-19 victims in their hospitals than any other time since the pandemic started. They had 14,255 and 2,074, respectively. Based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Texas record was created.
Six other states, including Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana, Hawaii, Mississippi, Mississippi, Oregon, have broken their hospitalization records.
Nearly 47% of Texas’s population are fully vaccinated. This is lower than the national average of 52% and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has prohibited mandates for vaccine and mask use. Many schools and counties have resisted his ban on masks.
Kentucky’s population is just 48% fully vaccinated. Public health officials blame the state’s surge for this lag. Democratic Governor. Andy Beshear’s COVID-19 limitations expired in June. The GOP-controlled legislature has prevented him from issuing any new requirements for masks or limits on capacity.
Nationally, COVID-19 deaths have reached more than 1,100 per day. This is the highest level since mid March. New cases per day average over 152,000 and bring the total back to January. The number of coronavirus-infected patients in hospital was 85,000 as of this week. This is a new record since February.
This is due to the highly contagious delta virus among unvaccinated people. Doctors have appealed to their patients to inoculate themselves in areas with low vaccination rates to save hospitals.
They also raised alarm about the increasing impact of the variant on young people and children.
According to Lisa Piercey, Health Commissioner, children now account for 36% of Tennessee’s COVID-19 cases. This is yet another significant milestone in Tennessee’s fight against the virus. She stated that the state has 14,000 cases of pediatrics in the past seven days, a 57% increase on the previous week.
Students in South Carolina will be required to wear masks starting Monday, as COVID-19 cases rise rapidly among students and children.
In South Carolina, nearly 30% of all new cases within the last two weeks were in children aged 20 or under. According to state officials, 17% of new cases occurred in the same period in 2020.
Anderson Lopez Castillo is a nurse at UAB Hospital in Birmingham who treats COVID-19 seriously ill patients. He said that treating children as young as 16 in critical health care has been a strain. This was on top of an almost year-long ordeal which left him questioning his profession choice.
“Initially, we noticed a lot older people getting it. It was like, “OK, we can handle this.” He said that even though it was stressful, and even if the virus is dangerous, it won’t be too bad for us nurses caring for these older patients.
Castillo, 24, stated that he now sees the virus making young people very ill, and it makes him, along with other young nurses, think about their mortality.
He said, “There’s certainly a little subconscious thought inside all of our heads going ‘You know that could be us’.”
