Several states that have seen spikes in COVID-19 cases are dealing with such an influx of sick residents that hospital beds are drying up.
New Mexico top health officials had to set up a waiting list for intensive care beds for the first time, warning that the state is about a week away from rationing medical supplies as coronavirus infections rise and nurses scarce deliver.
The Minister for Health and Human Services, Dr. David Scrase said the number of COVID patients rose 20% on the last day alone and that New Mexico is well on track to beat its worst-case projections for cases and hospital admissions. The data shows that 90% of the cases since February have been among the unvaccinated.
He said the result could be that “we have to decide who gets and who doesn’t, and we don’t want to get to that point.”
The number of cases in Ohio is also leading some hospitals to plan to potentially discontinue elective procedures that require overnight stays due to rising COVID-19 hospital stays.
“Because of the fluid nature of this fourth surge, we will continuously monitor capacity and pause or resume single-night elective surgeries as needed,” said a statement from OhioHealth, which operates 12 hospitals across the state.
Three OhioHealth hospital intensive care units were busy over 90% for the week of August 13, the last date for which capacity data was available from the US Department of Health. One was 99% full, as the data shows.
Also on the news:
► Approximately 89% of federal rental subsidies approved by Congress remain unused, even if a potential clearance crisis emerges.
►Massachusetts has a national mask mandate for K-12 students that requires students over the age of 5 to wear face covers indoors until at least October.
► Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has faced two pandemic-related policy lawsuits. One lawsuit seeks her decision to prematurely end a number of federal unemployment benefit programs, and the other concerns the state’s ban on mask requirements in schools.
Numbers Today: The US has recorded more than 38 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 632,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Global Total: More than 213 million cases and 4.4 million deaths. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 171 million Americans – 51.7% of the population – have been fully vaccinated.
📘What we read: Labor Day is getting closer. Here’s what you need to know when planning a getaway amid COVID-19 and the Delta surge. Read more here.
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New York Adds 12,000 COVID Deaths From Nursing Homes and Hospitals
New York Governor Kathy Hochul admitted nearly 12,000 more deaths in the state from COVID-19 on her first day in office than was published by her predecessor Andrew Cuomo.
New York now reports that nearly 55,400 people have died of COVID-19 in New York based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC, up from approximately 43,400 Cuomo reported to the public on Monday, his last day in office.
“We are now releasing more data than was previously publicly released so people know that nursing home deaths and hospital deaths are consistent with the CDC,” Hochul said on MSNBC on Wednesday. “There are many things that did not happen and I will implement them. Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration.”
The Associated Press first reported in July the large discrepancy between the death numbers published by the Cuomo administration and the numbers reported by the state to the CDC. Cuomo’s critics had long accused him of manipulating the statics of the coronavirus to polish up his image as the leader of the pandemic.
The federal prosecutor’s office previously opened an investigation to investigate his government’s handling of data on nursing home patient deaths. The Cuomo state had minimized the deaths of nursing home residents by excluding all patients who died after being transferred to hospitals.
Which students missed classes during COVID-19? We asked. And schools don’t know.
The biggest challenge for schools is getting the students back this fall: what to do with all the children who missed a lot of class time during the pandemic, be it in person or from home?
Yet 17 months after the coronavirus first hit the nation, few of America’s largest counties can give a clear picture of which students fall into that category – which begs the question of whether schools are ready to catch up with students and put them on prepare for adulthood.
Research suggests that children who are chronically absent – that is, they miss at least 10% of a given school year – are at risk of eventually dropping out of college.
USA TODAY reached out to a selection of school districts, including the 10 largest in the country, before the pandemic changed enrollment, requesting data on students who have been chronically absent for the past three years of school. Read more here.
–Alia Wong
Contribution: The Associated Press.
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