As The Cases Of Covid Is On The Decline Hospitals Are Still Strained

It’s good news that the COVID-19 cases are declining day by day with infection and hospitalization rates are down, but several regions are still struggling and the strain on health care resources are getting difficult to handle.

One doctor stated that he has seen headlines about the cases declining but he struggles to see any relief as the hospitals are still overwhelmed and under a lot of strain

As The Cases Of Covid Is On The Decline Hospitals Are Still Strained

Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency room physician in west Michigan was quoted saying that he had worked a couple of shifts in a row where he had to tend to six, seven people in the emergency department waiting for beds that didn’t exist.

Now 56 percent of the US population is fully vaccinated, the number of people who are getting their first shot is lesser than those who are getting booster shots, as per CDC (Center for Disease Control). The fully vaccinated number of residents in Michigan stands at 52 percent.

According to CDC data, seven million fully vaccinated Americans have gotten booster shots. An average of 434,787 Americans is getting a booster shot each day, compared to 288,445 Americans getting their first dose each day and 295,967 Americans getting their second dose each day.

And the data coming from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) shows that Michigan is one of five states which is witnessing a 10 percent increase in COVID infections over the past week, the cases on the national level however are dropping weekly.

The US as a whole has averaged 95,917 new cases a day for over a week which is a 44 percent decline from the peak average in mid-September. The delta variant playing its part in taking the figure to its peak in mid-September as per John Hopkins univ data. The national average of the number of people in hospitals with the virus was 67,321 as of Friday, a 35 percent drop from last month as per the US Department of Health and Human Services.

However, in Davidson’s overburdened hospital in western Michigan, he is witnessing COVID-19 patients usually unvaccinated and in their 50’s being put on ventilators for a month at least, and undergoing invasive procedures just to stay alive.

It has been observed that COVID-19 survivors end up having Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD because of the trauma they have gone through in the ICU. A study that was published in February 2021 found that 30 percent of COVID survivors have experienced PTSD.

Coming Halloween Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine may be authorized for children aged five to seven. It remains to be seen how the vaccine for the most vulnerable section of Americans with the imminent delta variant threat turns out.

Among all the wealthy democracies, the US has unfortunately the lowest vaccination rates. The anti-vaccine movement remains strong with protesters tearing down a Covid testing site in New York City last Monday.

According to Kaiser Family Foundation, one in six adults nationwide is vehemently opposed to getting vaccinated. And only a third of parents say that they will let their kids get vaccinated if it gets authorized.

In the U.K. ninety-seven percent of people who are over sixty-five have gotten vaccinated compared to only Eighty-four percent of elder Americans who have gotten vaccinated. 

With the Delta variant imminent it is very important for people to get the shots so that we see a good winter.

The COVID vaccine helps prevent hospitalization and hence health officials together with government officials have been pleading with the American public who remain unvaccinated to get vaccinated.