A Missouri hospital ran out of ventilators over the Fourth of July weekend amid a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations doubtlessly attributable to the spreading Delta variant.
Coronavirus hospital sufferers in Springfield — a metropolis of over 160,000 individuals — jumped about 27 p.c over the vacation weekend as the realm grapples with low immunization charges.
The town’s two hospitals — CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield — had been treating 213 COVID-19 sufferers as of Monday, up from 168 on Friday.
Again on Could 24, the 2 hospitals had been treating simply 31 coronavirus sufferers.
With the affected person uptick, Mercy Springfield ran out of ventilators over the weekend, however was in a position to borrow extra earlier than one other affected person arrived, in response to Erik Frederick, the hospital’s chief administrative officer.
“After what we’ve seen within the final month everyone seems to be simply holding their breath, particularly after a vacation weekend like this, figuring out that there have been massive gatherings,” Frederick advised the Related Press.
Missouri has probably the most new COVID-19 circumstances per capita over the previous 14 days of any state within the nation.
Simply shy of 45 p.c of the state’s residents have obtained no less than one dose of the vaccine. The nationwide charge is 54.7 p.c.
With Submit wires
