“Overall, you’re going to see more sick people even if you as an individual have a lower chance of being sick,” Katriona Shea, PhD, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University who assembles pandemic models and projections to be shared with the White House, told the Associated Press. Over the past two weeks, the national daily hospitalization average from COVID-19 has risen 47 percent to 156,894 as of Jan. 18, according to The New York Times. And while the national daily case average appears to be plateauing—despite warnings from some that the slowdown may be the result of states not reporting data due to the holiday weekend—experts warn that the typical weeks-long lag of patient increases that follow each surge could put even greater stress on the healthcare system. “I think it’s going to get much worse,” Ashish Jha, MD, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said during an interview with Fox News Sunday on Jan. 16. “So, right now, we have about 150,000 people in the hospital with COVID. That’s more than we’ve ever had.” “I expect those numbers to get substantially higher,” Jha predicted. “The problem is we are running out of health care workforce, we don’t have the staffing. So that is going to be a challenge for many weeks ahead.” Read on to see which states have experienced surges in COVID hospitalization of more than 90 percent over the past week as of Jan. 19, according to data from The New York Times. RELATED: If You Notice Pain Here, It May Be an Omicron Symptom, Doctors Warn.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 93 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 44
On Jan. 18, health officials in South Carolina reported that there were 2,381 COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide, including 428 patients in the ICU and 206 on ventilators. The total makes up 26 percent of all hospitalizations in the state.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 96 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 26
Daily reported cases are breaking records in Hawaii, with an all-time high of 6,252 added to the state’s tally on Jan. 18. Currently, the state has 365 patients battling the virus, including 41 in the ICU and 19 on ventilators.
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Percent increase in the last 14 days: 96 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 48
Hospitalizations are on the rise in Mississippi, where cases have also risen 57 percent over the past two weeks to a daily average of 6,902 as of Jan. 19, according to The Times. Oktibbeha county was found to have the second-most explosive hospitalization surge of all counties in the U.S., seeing a 1,303 percent increase in patients over the past 14 days to 30 per 100,000 people as of Jan. 18.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 102 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 41
On Jan. 18, Louisiana health officials reported that the state had crossed the 1 million case threshold, bringing its pandemic total to 1,025,748. Data also showed that there were 2,183 patients hospitalized with the virus statewide as of Jan. 17. “While thankfully Omicron is on average less likely to put you in the hospital than other variants, that is just an average,” Joseph Kanter, MD, the state’s health officer, said in a news release. “It is still possible to get very sick from COVID-19 as the large number of people currently hospitalized in Louisiana show us. The best possible protection against being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 is getting vaccinated and boosted as soon as you are eligible.” RELATED: Dr. Fauci Just Said This Is When Omicron Cases Will Start Going Down.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 110 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 37
The recent surge of hospitalizations from COVID-19 in California has pushed its healthcare system to its breaking point. According to projections from the state’s health department, the patient count will likely peak around 40 percent higher than the surge seen last winter, bringing the total to more than 70,000, CalMatters reports.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb “We find ourselves on the precipice of the most challenging time to date for California’s healthcare system,” Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, said in a news release. “Our capabilities may soon be eclipsed.”
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 121 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 52
Alabama has seen the sharpest increase in hospitalizations over the past two weeks of any state. According to Suzanne Judd, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, the patient load will likely stay high for the next two or three weeks before they return to pre-Omicron levels, she told AL.com. She urged for more residents to get vaccinated and to follow public health guidelines to help ease the burden on the local healthcare system. “There will be surges, and when we’re in a surge, it’s important that we mask,” Judd said. “It’s important that schools and businesses have guidelines for when they’re going to say it’s time to mask and now we can ease up. Because having those guidelines ahead of time will help us be prepared when the surges come. They will come regularly, so we have to be ready as a society for how we’re going to move.” RELATED: If You Have Omicron, This Is When You’ll Begin to Feel Symptoms.
title: “These 7 States Are Seeing The Biggest Surge In Covid Hospitalizations” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-28” author: “David Garcia”
On Jan. 11, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID hit a pandemic high of 145,982, breaking the previous record set during a surge in January 2021, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). COVID patients now also make up roughly 30 percent of all ICU admissions nationwide, while children are increasingly being hospitalized with the virus at a higher rate than ever before, NPR reports.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Experts have been cautioning that hospitalizations would spike despite the variant being likely to cause milder symptoms. “There will certainly be a lot more cases because this is a much more transmissible virus than Delta is,” Fauci said during a Jan. 2 interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “The only difficulty is that if you have so many cases, even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with Omicron than it is with Delta, there is still the danger that you will have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the healthcare system.” Unfortunately, a dwindling supply of hospital beds could have catastrophic consequences. “The new Omicron math: somewhat milder x massively more infectious = overwhelmed hospitals and lots of deaths,” Bob Wachter, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), tweeted on Jan. 6. Read on to see which states have experienced surges in COVID hospitalization of more than 150 percent over the past week as of Jan. 12, according to data from The New York Times. RELATED: This Strange Symptom at Night Could Mean You Have Omicron, Doctors Warn.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 152 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 34
A spike in hospitalizations is hitting South Carolina just after it reported breaking its single-day case record with 16,630 new infections on Jan. 6, surpassing the previous record set just two days earlier of 13,320. The report nearly doubled the previous single-day high reported on Dec. 30 of 8,800. As of Jan. 12, it’s also seen a more significant spike in COVID cases than any other state, skyrocketing 842 percent over the past 14 days to 253 cases per 100,000 people, according to data from The Times.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 157 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 50
COVID hospitalizations are on the rise in Georgia, where the case count has also spiked 117 percent over the past two weeks to 185 per 100,000 people as of Jan. 12, according to data from The Times. Unfortunately, deaths have also risen over the same period, spiking 9 percent to a daily average of 31.
RELATED: Dr. Fauci Just Said This Is When Omicron Cases Will Start Going Down.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 190 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 37
Alabama’s recent surge in COVID hospitalizations has also been coupled with a major spike in COVID cases, increasing 392 percent over the past two weeks to 210 cases per capita as of Jan. 12, data from The Times show. The state is also reporting a 39.4 positive test rate, according to COVID Act Now.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 191 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 20
Hawaii, which still ranks as the state with the fewest all-time COVID cases per capita, has seen its recent surge in cases spill over into hospitalizations, causing concern for some local officials. “We fully expect given the infection rate and the positivity rate in the state that we will get close to or perhaps even exceed the hospitalization rate that we had during the Delta surge,” Hilton Raethel, MPH, president and CEO of Healthcare Association of Hawaii, told local Honolulu Fox/CW affiliate KHON.
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Percent increase in the last 14 days: 197 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 38
Besides a significant surge in hospitalizations, Mississippi is also seeing COVID-19 cases spike with a 301 percent increase over the past 14 days to 205 per capita as of Jan. 12, according to data from The Times. The state is also reporting a positive test rate of 44.1 percent, according to data from COVID Act Now.
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 272 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 47
After COVID-19 cases in Florida began to spike leading into the holidays, an increase in hospitalizations appears to have followed. Now, local healthcare systems are feeling the strain of the added patients. “We really just look at it as another wave, and let’s address it head-on and try to mitigate as best as possible,” Joshua Lenchus, MD, Regional Chief Medical Officer for Broward Health, told local Miami ABC affiliate WPLG. “A good 75 to 80 percent of those are consistently unvaccinated. We have looked at this last month of the Omicron wave.”
Percent increase in the last 14 days: 311 percent Average hospitalizations per 100,000 people: 34
As well as topping the nation in terms of surges in COVID hospitalizations, Louisiana is also seeing a 275 percent increase in new cases over the past 14 days to 248 per capita. State officials noted that the recent spike is nearing record-high levels for patient numbers. “Louisiana’s COVID hospitalizations were last this high at the end of July/beginning of August 2021, when the state was in the throes of the Delta surge,” Christina Stephens, a spokesperson for Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, said in a statement. “The trend we’ve seen during this Omicron surge is that three out of every four people hospitalized with COVID in Louisiana are unvaccinated. The vaccines are working, period.”
RELATED: If You Notice Pain Here, It May Be an Omicron Symptom, Doctors Warn.
