US Covid-19 cases climbing in ‘pandemic of unvaccinated’
- Vast majority of dead and hospitalised have been unvaccinated
- US dispensing about 900,000 vaccines a day, down from high of 3.4 million
The cases – driven by the Delta variant combined with resistance among some Americans to getting the vaccine – were concentrated mostly in the South.
While one-time hotspots like Florida and Louisiana are improving, infection rates were soaring in Kentucky, Georgia and Tennessee, fuelled by children now back in school, loose mask restrictions and low vaccination levels.
The dire situation in some hospitals is starting to sound like January’s infection peak: surgeries cancelled in hospitals in Washington state and Utah. Severe staff shortages in Kentucky and Alabama. A lack of beds in Tennessee. Intensive care units at or over capacity in Texas.
The deteriorating picture nine months into the nation’s vaccination drive has angered and frustrated medical professionals who see the heartbreak as preventable. The vast majority of the dead and the hospitalised have been unvaccinated, in what has proved to be a hard lesson for some families.
“The problem now is we have been trying to educate based on science, but I think most of the education that is happening now is based on tragedy, personal tragedy,” said Dr Ryan Stanton, an accident and emergency doctor in Lexington, Kentucky.
