Cities along the Gulf Coast are so overwhelmed with cases of COVID-19, that hospital intensive care units are full with few to no beds left for patients suffering severe symptoms.
The delta variant that is causing a rise in numbers across the United States is particularly wreaking havoc along the Gulf Coast, which stretches along the Gulf of Mexico between Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
While these states are seeing a tourism boom that has unmasked visitors out enjoying bars, beaches and casinos without restrictions after being locked down last summer, hospitals are inundated with unvaccinated patients fighting for their lives.
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Data compiled by the New York Times shows that the average per-person hospitalization rate for Panama City, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Gulfport, Mississippi, is considerably higher than that of their states as a whole. In surrounding counties, the per-person average case rates are more than twice the national average, according to the analysis. Meanwhile, the vaccination rate in all three counties is well below 40%.
Hospitalizations are breaking records daily. In Florida and Mississippi, ICU capacity is above 93%. A similar scene is playing out in Texas, which is using 92% of its ICU beds. Louisiana seems to have the most room among Gulf Coast states in the ICU, right around 89%. As for the most overwhelmed, Alabama right now is over capacity with more ICU patients than total beds.
In addition to a flood of COVID patients, health systems are also dealing with staff shortages. Some hospitals have beds that are empty because there aren't enough workers to manage patient needs. In Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, 75 doctors staged a walkout on Monday to protest the number of unvaccinated COVID patients flooding their hospital.
Tiffany Murdoch, a hospital administrator for Singing River Health System in Mississippi, told the Times that most patients hospitalized with COVID are younger people who thought they had nothing to fear, so they didn't get vaccinated.
"We've had 44-year-olds, 45, 35, who have died," Murdoch told the paper. "I've been a nurse for 15 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it... After Fourth of July is when everything kind of went to hell in a handbasket."
Murdoch said the hospital system is so overwhelmed with a surge of COVID patients in the ICU, there's no room for new patients suffering from the virus.
"If you walked into our emergency department right now you would be like, 'What is happening?' Every single hallway has beds in it with patients, every chair," she told the Times.
Even as hospital beds fill up, leaders in the conservative states are resisting public health initiatives and refuse to reimpose restrictions such as social distancing and mask mandates. Governors are encouraging people to get vaccinated, but their push to curb cases stops there.
Lisa Hastings, a nurse from Louisiana, said she's concerned about the situation from a professional standpoint, but she told the Associated Press that she also understands people wanting to have some fun and let loose after more than a year of pandemic restrictions.
"I think people are kind of over being afraid and so they’ve got to live their lives," she said.
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