Many hospitals in the southern United States are under increased pressure due to a wave of COVID-19 infections driven by the delta variant.
Some states are setting hospitalization records. Florida reported 11,515 hospitalizations for COVID-19 on Tuesday, surpassing the previous high of 10,170 reached in July 2020.
Louisiana also reached a new high of 2,112 hospitalizations. The previous peak of 2,069 occurred on Jan. 7.
Other states in the Deep South have seen steep increases in hospitalizations over the last month. During July, the seven-day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Mississippi rose from 177 to 783, and in Alabama, it rose from 291 to 1,280, according to data from the New York Times.
“Louisiana is in a worse place than we’ve ever been with regard to hospitalizations,” said Susan Hassig, an epidemiology professor at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. “EMS systems and emergency rooms are backed up. Some can’t admit patients, whether they have Covid or not.”
On Monday, Louisiana Gov. John Edwards reinstated the state’s mask mandate for indoor locations for everyone age 5 and older in response to rising COVID-19 cases.
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“It is ravaging the state of Mississippi,” said Dr. Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. “It’s got our Medical Center filled up with patients, along with every other hospital in Jackson as well as the state.”
Adding to the difficulties is the rise in coronavirus infections among hospital staff, likely an effect of the delta variant’s higher rate of infectiousness.
“We’re seeing a very sharp increase in the number of staff members who are getting ill and are needing to quarantine,” said Jones. “It is more prevalent than in previous surges.”
Most of the COVID-19 cases are occurring among people who are unvaccinated. In Alabama, 34.4% of the population is fully vaccinated, and in Mississippi it is 34.5%, making those states the lowest and second lowest in the U.S. Louisiana is the fifth lowest, at 37%.
Dr. Don Williamson, the CEO of the Alabama Hospital Association, said that COVID-19 trends in his state are going in the wrong direction, although the situation with ICU beds is better than it was in January, at least for right now. But the trend is worsening, and it has knock-on effects for people seeking care for other illnesses.
“Hospitals were busy before the delta surge,” Williamson said. “I’ve heard from a lot of hospital administrators that as the pandemic eased, they were seeing an influx of patients who had delayed care during the height of the pandemic. That is now running up against the current rise in COVID cases.”
Thus far, the number of deaths is not on pace with previous surges, thanks in large part to the vaccination campaign. Alabama has seen the seven-day average in the number of COVID-19 cases increase more than 12-fold over the last month, while deaths have barely doubled, from about three to seven.
But Williamson suggests that might be due to the fact that in previous surges, cases didn’t rise as steeply.
“There is usually a two-week lag period between an increase in cases and then deaths,” Williamson said. “This time cases have gone straight up. That could happen with deaths as well.”
But Williamson also acknowledged that deaths might be kept in check this time because of better therapies, including monoclonal antibodies.
The average age of COVID-19 patients is also much younger this time, since 80% of those age 65 and up have been fully vaccinated. People under age 50 have a lower mortality rate from COVID-19.
“Is the delta variant going to be different in its mortality impact? We don’t see that yet,” said Hassig. “My gut says no, it won’t be.”
Other states in the South are seeing increases in COVID-19, albeit ones that are not as steep as the Deep South. Texas, for example, has seen hospitalizations rise from 1,900 to 5,794, during July, while Tennessee has seen that number rise from 263 to 796. But that does not mean that hospitals in those states are not struggling.
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“It is wreaking havoc on some of our hospitals,” said Dr. Manoj Jain, an infectious disease physician at the Rollins School of Public Health who also sees patients at various hospitals in Memphis. “All of the emergency rooms that I saw yesterday were packed with patients. There were ten patients just holding at one hospital, waiting to get into a bed.”
