Hospitals Are Once Again at the Breaking Point as COVID-19 Cases Surge

• The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States has skyrocketed in the past week.
• Experts say hospitals are quickly filling up and there are critical staffing shortages at these facilities.
• They also warn that the hospitalizations may continue to rise due to the proliferation of the Delta variant.

The Delta variant is driving the current surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the United States, especially in hot spots such as Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.

And as with the first outbreak of COVID-19 last year, some hospitals are fast approaching their capacity to provide care for people with the most serious illnesses.

According to the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC), overall COVID-19 cases nationwide rose about 18 percent last week compared with the previous week.

The agency reports that more than 95 percent of the new COVID-19 cases in the United States involve the highly infectious Delta variant.

In the past week, more than 3,200 people died from COVID-19, with per capita death rates being the highest in Louisiana, Nevada, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Overall, U.S. hospitals are taking care of more than 70,000 COVID-19 patients. That’s an increase of 10,000 in less than a week. There are more than 12,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida and more than 9,000 in Texas.