90% of hospitalized COVID patients unvaccinated in Meridian

Everett

MERIDIAN, miss. (WTOK) – The surge in COVID-19 cases is bringing the U.S. healthcare system to near rupture. Hospitals and emergency rooms across the country, including eastern Mississippi and western Alabama, are overwhelmed.

Officials tell Newscenter 11 that the majority of their patients infected with the highly contagious Delta variant are unvaccinated.

“We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of positive COVID patients in our hospital,” said Dr. Keith Everett, Chief Medical Officer, Anderson Regional Medical Center. “We have also seen a dramatic number of people being hospitalized due to the effects of COVID.”

Approximately 90% of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Anderson Regional Medical Center are unvaccinated.
“Last week, the new cases in Mississippi are higher than in January. Although we are not feeling the rise as much as in January, it will be worse in three weeks than at the peak in January, ”said Dr. Fred Duggan, Chief Medical Officer of Rush Health Systems. Everett said there are no ICU rooms available at Anderson. “We have seen a dramatic shift to almost no patients in our department in the past three and a half weeks. Now our intensive care and intensive care unit is essentially fully occupied with COVID patients. We are now looking for places for these patients as all of our rooms are occupied. A large percentage of these patients are not vaccinated, ”said Dr. Everett. The situation is also critical at Rush Health Systems. There are 53 COVID-19 patients in the hospital in Rush. Fourteen are in intensive care. Duggan said this could affect emergency medical care for other patients who may be spending hours in the waiting room. “We were lucky. We are a health system with many different institutions. We have one long-term acute hospital and five critical access hospitals. What we did when the patients were better, we moved them to lower levels of care in the system so that we wouldn’t clog our intensive care unit, ”said Dr. Duggan. Both Duggan and Everett said the virus is targeting younger people. “What we are seeing now is that patients with COVID are much younger. They are in their 40s and 50s. That is a large number of our hospital stays. As a result, we’ve seen a significant decrease in COVID illnesses among those over 65, “Everett said. “The majority of deaths are unvaccinated people between the ages of 50 and 64. It is the highest population group in this surge, which is different from the previous surge, where the older you were, the higher the chance of death was. It’s clearly changed, ”said Duggan. Both doctors urge people to get vaccinated. “The most important thing is that people get vaccinated. Imagine vaccinating not just to protect yourself, but to protect everyone around you. If you are vaccinated, you are much less likely to pass the virus on to your family, neighbors, church members and friends, ”said Dr. Everett. Rush and Anderson have been helping other hospitals in the area as COVID hospital admissions continue to rise.

Approximately 90% of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Anderson Regional Medical Center are unvaccinated.

“Last week, the new cases in Mississippi are higher than in January. Although we are not feeling the rise as much as in January, it will be worse in three weeks than at the peak in January, ”said Dr. Fred Duggan, Chief Medical Officer of Rush Health Systems.

Everett said there are no ICU rooms available at Anderson.

“We have seen a dramatic shift to almost no patients in our department in the past three and a half weeks. Now our intensive care and intensive care unit is essentially fully occupied with COVID patients. We are now looking for places for these patients as all of our rooms are occupied. A large percentage of these patients are not vaccinated, ”said Dr. Everett.

The situation is also critical at Rush Health Systems. There are 53 COVID-19 patients in the hospital in Rush. Fourteen are in intensive care. Duggan said this could affect emergency medical care for other patients who may be spending hours in the waiting room.
“We were lucky. We are a health system with many different institutions. We have one long-term acute hospital and five critical access hospitals. What we did when the patients were better, we moved them to lower levels of care in the system so that we wouldn’t clog our intensive care unit, ”said Dr. Duggan.

Both Duggan and Everett said the virus is targeting younger people.

“What we are seeing now is that patients with COVID are much younger. They are in their 40s and 50s. That is a large number of our hospital stays. As a result, we’ve seen a significant decrease in COVID illnesses among those over 65, “Everett said.
“The majority of deaths are unvaccinated people between the ages of 50 and 64. It is the highest population group in this surge, which is different from the previous surge, where the older you were, the higher the chance of death was. It’s clearly changed, ”said Duggan.

Both doctors urge people to get vaccinated.

“The most important thing is that people get vaccinated. Imagine vaccinating not just to protect yourself, but to protect everyone around you. If you are vaccinated, you are much less likely to pass the virus on to your family, neighbors, church members and friends, ”said Dr. Everett.

Rush and Anderson have been helping other hospitals in the area as COVID hospital admissions continue to rise.