London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 08, 2025

How Bad Is US Covid Rebound? ICU Beds Offer Worrying Clue

How Bad Is US Covid Rebound? ICU Beds Offer Worrying Clue

The COVID-19 numbers are a sobering reminder of how brutal the pandemic remains for the US health-care system, and could augur trouble ahead for its Northeast states.

The latest US Covid-19 wave is taking its toll on some states' intensive-care units, with several parts of the country seeing outbreaks that are as bad as ever.

In 15 states, patients with confirmed or suspected Covid are taking up more ICU beds than a year earlier, according to Department of Health and Human Services data. Colorado, Minnesota and Michigan have 41 per cent, 37 per cent and 34 per cent of ICU beds occupied by Covid-19 patients, respectively, the data show.


The dramatic uptick means there's proportionately less space in hospitals for those suffering from other potentially deadly ailments.

"Many of our physicians are at a breaking point," said Ali Mokdad, a professor with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. "It's not easy to be day in and day out in an emergency room, in an ICU, looking at someone who is dying because he or she is not vaccinated."

Trouble Ahead


The numbers are a sobering reminder of how brutal the pandemic remains for the US health-care system, and could augur trouble ahead for Northeast states, where cases began surging a few weeks after the Midwest and Rocky Mountains.

Despite the widespread availability of vaccines, the fast-spreading delta variant has shown a frightening capacity to find the most vulnerable people in society. Meanwhile, most states have returned to a semblance of their pre-pandemic lifestyles.

Michigan, which has the highest per-capita case rate in the nation, is encouraging people to get vaccinated and mask up. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a mask advisory on November 19. But Governor Gretchen Whitmer does not plan to issue any new restrictions on public gatherings, said spokesman Bobby Leddy.

The surge begs the question of when the US will finally be able to turn the page on the pandemic. A new Covid-19 pill from Pfizer Inc. is bound to help, as will other therapeutics in the pipeline. Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum last week in Singapore, Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates predicted that the combination of vaccine-induced and natural immunity worldwide and the new oral treatments would bring Covid's impact to flu-like levels by mid-2022 -- a remarkable turnaround if he's right.

Death Count


The US has been reporting more than 1,000 average deaths from Covid every day for more than three months. Increases in fatalities typically follow increases in infections.

In the meantime, it's not clear to what extent any hospital system is safe. Many of the states getting hit now have average vaccination rates -- neither spectacularly high like parts of the Northeast nor especially low like parts of the South. Michigan's 54 per cent full vaccination rate trails the national average of 59 per cent, but Colorado and Minnesota are both doing slightly better than the country as a whole.

In New York, rural areas are seeing positive-test rates of more than 8 per cent, while New York City remains below 2 per cent. State officials have reopened 13 mass vaccination sites and have 200 pop-up sites all over the state to get the vaccines into communities.

"We are heading into a very vulnerable time," New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Monday at a turkey distribution event. "The good news compared from last year to this year, is that we now have the weapons to fight back."

The vaccines continue to work very well at protecting those who take them, but the societal impact is another matter. Unvaccinated people continue to show a vastly higher rate of hospitalization with Covid-19, according to the latest data from the CDC's Covid-Net surveillance network, which was updated Friday and now includes figures through the end of September.


Mokdad said he doesn't project Covid's overall impact on hospitals will near last winter's levels, but he noted that it was a different story in certain hot spots and everyone should be prepared. "No state is safe," he said.

Maine to Idaho


Maine, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the US, is setting pandemic hospitalization records with the count of patients nearing 300 in recent days. The surge is strongest among counties with the lowest vaccination rates, according to CDC data.

Idaho on Monday ended hospital-care rationing rules -- with the exception of its northern panhandle where anti-vaccine sentiment runs high -- but the system remains stressed. At St. Luke's Health System, one of Idaho's largest providers, 21 per cent of hospitalized adults are Covid-19 patients while 41 per cent of ICU patients are being treated for the virus, according to Jim Souza, chief physician executive. Fortunately, there have been no "deallocation decisions" where care was withheld, Souza said during an online briefing.

In New Hampshire, where the staffing crisis is dire and cases are reaching new peaks, the capacity crunch reached the point that Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover posted a plea on Facebook asking patients to come to the emergency department only for truly acute health crises.

Hospitalizations in New Jersey, meanwhile, have jumped by 15 per cent in the past week, with those in ICUs up 24 per cent, Governor Phil Murphy said Monday at a virus briefing.

"These numbers are being driven overwhelmingly by unvaccinated individuals," Murphy said.

Comments

mike 4 year ago
You wake up in the morning and you notice that you are dead. That's life - stupid.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Increases Reward for Arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro to Fifty Million Dollars
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
Matt Taibbi Slams Media for Role in Russiagate Narrative
Pilots Call for Mental Health Support Without Stigma
All Five Trapped Miners Found Dead After El Teniente Mine Collapse
Ong Beng Seng Pleads Guilty in Corruption Case Linked to Former Singapore Transport Minister
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
Italy Fines Shein One Million Euros for Misleading Sustainability Claims
×