(CNN)With an alarming rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, more Americans have recently made the decision to get vaccinated than in the last six weeks.
More than 1 million doses of the vaccine were reported administered Thursday, new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed, marking the first time since early July for the single-day change in reported doses. The average pace of those initiating vaccination is more than 70% higher than one month ago.
Oklahoma and Louisiana — two states that have lagged the rest of the nation in vaccinations — are now outpacing the national average, White House Covid-19 Response Team Chief of Staff Asma Mirza said in calls with local faith leaders Thursday.
“We’re seeing a new willingness, a new openness to getting vaccinated,” she said in a discussion with Louisiana faith leaders.
Texas health officials warn of full ICUs as state grapples with worsening Covid-19 surge
The boost in vaccinations, however, comes as more health care systems are reporting an increasingly dire situation, with an influx of patients flooding waiting rooms due largely to the spread of the more infectious Delta variant.
And because it takes weeks to gain immunity following full vaccination, even those beginning their inoculations need to remain cautious against infection.
Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at one of Atlanta’s largest trauma centers, Grady Health System, said it was seeing a “tsunami of patients coming into the emergency department.”
The situation is also critical in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott announced the state will deploy additional medical personnel to hospitals across the state.
Lauren Meyers, director of the University of Texas Covid-19 Modeling Consortium, warned that area hospitals are at a “breaking point.”
“We are sort of in a very dire situation in Austin,” Meyers said.
One state has no available ICU beds while thousands more students quarantine due to Covid-19
The rate of hospitalizations is still below pandemic highs seen in January, CDC data shows. But at the current pace — an average of more than 11,000 new hospital admissions for Covid-19 over the past week — the US might reach a record high within a month, the CDC said.
Mary Mayhew, the president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association (FHA), told CNN Friday the state’s current surge is “fundamentally different” from earlier surges, with more than 17,000 Covid-19 patients hospitalized in about six weeks amid a “severe staffing shortage.”
“These are healthy, young 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds who, because of the aggressive nature of the Delta variant, are now being hospitalized,” Mayhew said.
Hospitals across the state are doing everything possible to respond to the demand by postponing elective services and bringing in staff from other states, Mayhew said. They’re even converting auditoriums and cafeterias “to meet patient demand.”
Preventative vaccinations are the most effective means to combat Covid-19 infections, and the US Food and Drug Administration will likely approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine around the end of August, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said Thursday. Current vaccines have been granted emergency use authorization.
“I think that approval, at least for the Pfizer vaccine, is going to come very soon — probably by the end of the month or right around there,” McClellan told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
Booster shots for those inoculated are expected to be made widely available by September 20, and about 75% of the eligible population will have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine at current vaccination rates, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data.
Around 51.1% of the total US population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
