Once again, Americans who don’t even have coronavirus are suffering the consequences of COVID-19 patients filling up hospitals.

There are currently more than 101,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data Thursday from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Now, some patients who want urgent care do not get it because many beds are occupied by covid-19 patients.

“Before COVID, our intensive care units were very busy. This is because people had car accidents and heart attacks and needed complicated surgery and went to ICUs,” said Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, Clinical Director from Providence Health System in Seattle.

“And those people are being relegated to the background. So whatever is remotely elective, we are canceling those cases.”

In Idaho, the Department of Health and Welfare activated its Standards of Care in Crisis in the upstate Tuesday due to “a massive increase in COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization”.

The Crisis Standards of Care are “a last resort” that is only activated when “we have exhausted our resources to the point where our health care systems are unable to provide the treatment and care we expect,” said the department director of health, Dave Jeppesen.

Governor Brad Little urged Idahoans to qualify to get vaccinated.

“We have reached an unprecedented and unwanted point in the history of our state,” said the governor.

In Arkansas, there are only 23 intensive care beds available, Governor Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday.

The governor pointed out that 91.5% of patients hospitalized for covid-19 and 90% of deaths from covid-19 correspond to people who were not fully vaccinated.

In West Virginia, hospitals are “overwhelmingly inundated with cases of people who are not vaccinated,” Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday.

The state has 813 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and set a new record for COVID-19 patients in intensive care: 252 on Wednesday, Justice said. They also have a record of 132 covid-19 patients on respirators.

Doctors and governors agree: the crisis affecting Americans with or without COVID-19 was avoidable.

“We just have to use common sense and get vaccinated, and then we’ll stop this,” Justice said.

CDC Survey: Two-thirds of Respondents Who Tested Positive Report Long-Term Symptoms

In a survey of 6,000 people nationwide, about 22% said they had tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English) in a recently published report.

And the majority of those surveyed who tested positive said they had symptoms that lasted four weeks or more.

“Approximately two-thirds of those surveyed who had received a positive test result experienced long-lasting symptoms that are often associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the researchers wrote.

Of those who tested positive for the coronavirus and had long-term symptoms, 22% said they had suffered from fatigue, 17% said they had had a change in their sense of smell or taste, 15% said they had Long-term shortness of breath, nearly 15% said they had a cough and 14% said they had headaches.

About 29% said they thought that getting the COVID-19 vaccine improved their symptoms.

The survey was conducted online, and people diagnosed their own symptoms, unlike other studies in which an assessment was carried out by a medical professional.

However, the researchers claimed that the survey results offer a real-life insight into those affected by COVID-19.

Children are paying the price too

This school year, the delta variant is affecting more children, and it is more contagious than any other strain of coronavirus that students faced last year.

“This virus is really going after people who are not vaccinated,” said Dr. Edith Bracho-Sánchez, associate professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

“And among those people are children who do not qualify for the vaccine and children and adolescents who qualify but are choosing not to receive it.”

Nearly a quarter of Kentucky’s public school districts – 39 out of 171 – have already had to close at some point this school year due to increased COVID-19 cases, quarantines or staff shortages, it said Thursday. Kentucky School Boards Association spokesman Joshua Shoutla.

In West Virginia, there have been 68 school outbreaks in 31 counties, the governor reported Wednesday.

“Ten schools and an entire county, Clay, are closed due to covid,” Justice said.

Georgia’s fourth-largest school system moved one of its middle schools to distance learning “due to a high volume of positive cases and direct contacts,” Fulton County Schools said Wednesday.

And Connecticut College in New London said all classes and sports activities would be temporarily canceled, according to an alert posted by the university. According to what was said by the university this Tuesday, the classes will be held remotely and the measures will be re-evaluated in seven to 10 days.

Biden details new plans to combat delta variant surge

On Thursday, President Joe Biden laid out a new plan to fight the latest wave, imposing strict new vaccination rules on federal workers, large employers and healthcare personnel – requirements that could apply to up to 100 million Americans.

The six pillars of his plan include: vaccinating the unvaccinated; further protect those vaccinated through boosters; keep schools open; increase testing and require masks; protect economic recovery, and improve care for people with covid-19.

The plan includes ordering the Labor Department to require all employers with 100 or more employees to make sure their workers are fully vaccinated or to be tested once a week. Large employers will be required to give their workers paid time off to go get vaccinated against COVID-19, Biden said.

He also signed a decree that requires all government employees to be vaccinated, as well as a decree that mandates the same for employees of contractors who do business with the federal government.

“We have the tools to fight the virus if we come together to use those tools,” Biden said during his speech.

He added that educators in federal Head Start programs must be vaccinated and said he will also require that health workers at centers receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds be fully vaccinated.

The president also asked large entertainment venues to require a vaccination test or a negative test from customers and said the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would double the fines for passengers. that they will refuse to wear face masks on airplanes.

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