- Louisiana now leads the nation in new Covid cases
- Intensive care units near capacity in multiple locations
Covid-19 hospitalizations continued to surge among America’s deep south states on Monday as health officials urge unvaccinated residents to receive the shot and intensive care units near capacity in multiple locations, prompting fears of a surge close to the numbers of last winter.
Louisiana now leads the nation in new Covid cases as the Delta variant rips through a region with some of the lowest vaccination rates in the US. Last Friday, the Louisiana department of health announced a daily increase of 6,116 positive Covid cases, with 2,421 people now hospitalized with the virus, including 277 on ventilators. With just 37% of residents fully vaccinated, state data indicated that unvaccinated people accounted for 90% of hospitalizations in the state. One hundred and eighty one people died from the virus in Louisiana last week.
On Sunday, organizers of the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival announced that the event had been cancelled, citing “the current exponential growth of new Covid cases in New Orleans and the region and the ongoing public health emergency”. The event had already been rescheduled due to the pandemic, and marks a significant blow to the city’s local economy, which is heavily dependent on tourism.
Last week, Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards reintroduced a statewide indoor mask mandate in an effort to curb the spread of the delta variant. The mandate follows updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] that recommends mask wearing indoors in areas of “substantial or high transmission”.
In neighbouring Mississippi, where only 35% of residents are fully vaccinated, Covid hospitalizations are also soaring. There are currently 1,242 hospitalized Covid patients in the state, with 319 of those in the ICU, according to state health department data. The rising numbers mean that, as of last Friday, there were only 42 adult ICU beds available in the state.
The state’s top health official warned last Thursday that the Delta variant was “sweeping across Mississippi like a tsunami”.
“If we look at our trajectory, we see that it’s continuing to increase without any real demonstration of leveling off or decreasing,” said state health officer Dr Thomas Dobbs during a media briefing, adding that 90% of new infections were delta variant cases.
On Friday, the Mississippi State Medical Association urged all school districts in the state to issue mask mandates, as the state’s Republican governor Tate Reeves has so far declined to issue a new statewide order. A number of public institutions, including the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State University, have already reintroduced mask mandates.
Officials in Alabama, which also has a fully vaccinated rate of just 35%, have reported a surge in hospitalizations as well, with the vast majority receiving care being unvaccinated. On Friday the state’s health officer Dr Scott Harris announced that 93% of Alabama’s ICU beds were now full with 1,923 people hospitalized with the virus.
Harris said that as the numbers continued to climb, hospitals would look to expand capacity by converting non-clinical spaces into treatment areas and expanding ICU capacity.
Vaccination rates in Alabama, like those in Mississippi and Louisiana, have plateaued throughout the summer, and Harris said that over 65,511 doses of the vaccine had been wasted in the state due to expiry.
“Sixty-five thousand doses have been wasted. That’s extremely unfortunate when we have such a low vaccination rate, and, of course, [when] there are so many people in the world that still don’t have access to vaccine,” Harris said.
In Georgia, which has a slightly higher rate of 40% fully vaccinated, Covid-19 hospitalizations are still continuing to climb, with some hospitals in the Atlanta metro area coming close to capacity by Friday.
Republican governor Brian Kemp has also resisted calls for new mask mandates arguing the state is beginning to see a rise in vaccination during the latest surge. During remarks last Friday Kemp argued imposing new restrictions would be “divisive with our society”, adding: “We should be focused on getting people vaccinated.”
This article was originally published on Website: www.theguardian.com
Author is: Oliver Laughland in New Orleans@oliverlaughland