The COVID-19 epidemic is putting a strain on oxygen supplies, sending hospitals scrambling to find more ventilators. However, there are some signs that the virus spreading is slowing in certain areas of the U.S.
A hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma called 911 recently after running out of oxygen. They needed to transport a high-flow patient and they were short of oxygen. Although the hospital received a shipment that night, it was a wake-up call for other hospitals.
Goodloe stated, “If it can occur to one hospital it can happen at any other hospital.” “There is nothing that is happening over there. There is always something going on.”
The nation’s hospital system is suffering from another consequence of the COVID-19 revival. A few states, including Florida, Oregon and Hawaii, have set new records in terms of COVID-19 hospitalizations. Many hospitals are also severely short on staff and ICU beds.
However, there are some positive developments.
The average country has 155,000 new infections per day. However, the caseload trajectory has dropped dramatically since August.
In the last two weeks, Florida, Missouri and Arkansas saw slight drops in cases. Recent days have seen a decline in COVID-19-related admissions in Florida. This is in addition to the recent drop in admissions at Springfield, Missouri hospitals, which was an early epicenter for the delta variant-driven surge.
The White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said that vaccination numbers are on the rise. He also credited mandates for vaccines that have been implemented in schools, restaurants, workplaces, and sports stadiums across the country.
“Importantly we have accelerated the pace at which first shots are taken. We had more than 14 million first shots in August. Zients stated Tuesday that August saw almost 4 million more shots than July.
The numbers haven’t changed much in the week that has passed since Pfizer was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its vaccine. This approval came after six months of safety data had been reviewed. On Monday, the seven-day average of vaccine doses in the U.S. rose from 853,000 to 898,000 one week ago.
The death rate is also rising, with an average of more than 1,300 per day. This is what health officials predicted would happen due to the dramatic rise in hospitalizations and cases over the past month.
Oklahoma and Georgia are two new places where state and hospital leaders are raising alarm over the shortage of supplies and capacity.