WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to one of the country’s top health officials, the spike in coronavirus cases in the United States is surpassing the capacity of hospitals in some states to offer basic health treatment.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that “their health care systems are in critical difficulties” in some parts of the country.
“They are running out of beds,” she said. “And when you see that, you worry that people may not be able to come in and get the proper care if they have a motor vehicle accident or if they’re having a heart attack.”
“And that is why we are working so hard in areas that have high levels of disease” to get people vaccinated, she said, noting that people who are not vaccinated are 10 times more likely to be in the hospital than those who have been inoculated. “Our hospitals are filled with unvaccinated people.”
She also stated that unvaccinated people in the United States are 11 times more likely to die.
The United States appeared to be on the verge of containing the virus three months ago, but the delta version has resulted in a surge of new cases, ranging from 120,000 to 160,000 per day in recent weeks, and roughly 2,000 deaths each day.
Despite the fact that more than 183 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated, over 70 million have not, with many of them declining to be inoculated for various reasons.
Some people claim they are still suspicious about the shots’ safety or that they do not believe they would fall ill as a result of them.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there are currently 43 million confirmed cases in the United States, with nearly 700,000 deaths. In both categories, the United States leads the world.
