August 13, 2021 – A surge in coronavirus patients and a shortage of healthcare workers and ICU beds have pushed Mississippi’s hospital system to the brink of “failure,” according to state health officials who have said drastic federal intervention is needed to help the state grapple with the thousands of new daily infections that have overwhelmed doctors and nurses.
Mississippi is averaging nearly 2,700 new COVID-19 infections a day in the past week — a 54% spike in the past seven days, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.
New daily infections have climbed to more than 3,000 in the past two days, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health. More than 1,500 people in the state are hospitalized and nearly 400 ICU beds are filled with infected patients.
The Clarion Ledger reports that the number of ICU beds filled and ventilators in use in Mississippi have surpassed the state’s previous peak last winter.
State officials announced earlier in the week that there were no ICU beds available in Mississippi.
University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson, MS) is so overwhelmed that it is transforming a floor of one of its parking garages into a 50-bed field hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.
Federal health-care workers requested by the state are expected to arrive Friday, and officials said that 10 additional ICU beds would be made available at VA medical centers in Jackson and Biloxi.
Mississippi has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the country, with a little more than 35% of its population fully vaccinated as of Thursday. State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said at a Wednesday news conference that 97% of the people currently hospitalized are not vaccinated.