- the Delta variant rapidly spreading, US hot spots have seen climbing case numbers
- more than 99% of US Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people
As the Delta variant rapidly spreads, US hot spots have seen climbing case numbers and an expert warns a “surprising amount of death” from Covid-19 could soon follow says an article on CNN.
US hotspots
The US is averaging about 19,455 new cases over the last seven days, a 47% increase from the week prior, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And a third of those, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said, come from five hot spots: Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nevada.
At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, 91% of ICU patients are on ventilators and many are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, Chief Administrative Officer Erik Frederick told. That is especially concerning, he said because at the peak last year there were only 40 to 50% of ICU patients on ventilators.
Typically, increases in Covid-19 death rates follow three to four weeks behind spikes in cases, Reiner said. It takes a week for patients to get sick enough to need hospitalization and then often another couple of weeks for the infection to become fatal.
Vaccines effective
“We will start to see an increase in mortality in this country,” Reiner said. What is particularly frustrating for many experts, Reiner said, is that the deaths are “completely avoidable” now that vaccines are available.
But about one-third of those 12 and older in the US haven’t received the vaccine yet, CDC data shows. “The vaccines we have worked really well against this variant. It doesn’t need to be this way,” Reiner said.
Across the country, more than 99% of US Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Source: CNN
