Coronavirus Hospitalizations in the U.S. Rise Above 100,000 for First Time Since January

Critical care workers insert an endotracheal tube into a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) positive patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, February 11, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

The number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 in the US has risen above 100,000 for the first time since January, when the mass vaccination campaign was just getting under way.

Figures from the US Department of Health and Human Services show that 100,317 inpatient hospital beds are now occupied by Covid patients.

The return to January levels of hospitalisations underscores the devastating surge of infection from the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus which is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated people, especially in the US south.

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights the mortal danger that unvaccinated Americans are now facing. It shows that people without the vaccine are about 29 times more likely to end up in hospital with Covid than those who are fully vaccinated.

Unvaccinated people are also almost five times as likely to become infected as those who get the shots, the study found, basing its conclusions on data from Los Angeles county in California.

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SOURCE: The Guardian, Ed Pilkington