Delta variant-ravaged Southern hospitals send clear visual message about rates of vaccinated patients

By Christopher Zara

September 07, 2021

As hospital beds and ICUs reach capacity across many communities in the Southern United States, local healthcare systems continue to share easy-to-understand infographics on social media as a way to demonstrate the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. The takeaway message, like the graphics themselves, is simple and straightforward: Get vaccinated if you want to stay out of the hospital.

Southern states including Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama have some of the highest hospitalization rates in the country, according to the latest tracking data from the New York Times, leaving medical centers and the people who work for them overwhelmed in the wake of the highly transmissible delta variant.

Vaccination rates remain stubbornly low in many communities, prompting local healthcare systems to share updates about their current bed capacity along with the percentage of their patients who are unvaccinated. Here are a few examples:

Alabama

According to a tweet from the Alabama Hospital Association, 84% of its adult COVID-19 inpatients were unvaccinated as of September 6.

 

Florida

A tweet from Broward County’s Memorial Healthcare System said that 85% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated as of the end of last month.

Georgia

The Northeast Georgia Health System tweeted on August 31 that 242 of its 288 COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

Mississippi

The University of Mississippi Medical Center tweeted on Monday that only 16.4% of its COVID-19 inpatients are fully vaccinated.

South Carolina

The Lexington Medical Center tweeted on Monday that 173 out of 191 hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.

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