Aug. 10 2021 Recently, there has been a surge in confirmed cases in Mississippi, the United States, where vaccination rates are low. State officials and hospital officials said that as of 9 am local time, the state has no spare ICU (intensive care) beds.
The Boston Globe reported On The Morning, Dr. LuanN Woodward, Associate Dean Of The UniversitY Of Mississippi Medical Center, Said On Twitter That The State Of Mississippi Had Exhausted Its Intensive Care Unit Beds For New And Common PatientS And Could Not Provide The Medical Care They Needed For New PatientS. Mississippi health official Thomas Dobbs also said about 200 patients are waiting in the emergency room for beds, and about 500 more may need to be hospitalized in the coming days.
Local media in Mississippi reported that the number of ICU beds was a measure of how local hospitals were affected by the new outbreak, and that the state had a shortage of ICU beds on August 4th, leaving only six in the state. U.S. media pointed out that Mississippi recently added a surge in new crown cases, an average of 2,092 cases per day in seven days, close to the peak of the winter of 2020 2,400 cases.
In response to the surge in new cases, Dobbs said in a statement that 97 percent of new patients were not vaccinated. Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the United States, with only 44 percent of adults completing the vaccination, according to the New York Times.
