(CNN) The Delta variant continues its stronghold nationwide. Some states are so low on hospital beds that patients are turning to other states to get treated. This comes as students are returning back to the classroom and more businesses are requiring workers to be vaccinated.
Tim Cotto has been at Kingwood Emergency Hospital since last Wednesday after being diagnosed with COVID pneumonia and needs urgent care. The hospital is out of ICU beds. Cotto’s wife said, “As we were leaving, the nurse comes running out that he’d gotten a bed in New Mexico so we were so excited and we celebrated but unfortunately, since then my husband has taken a turn for the worse.”
As ICU beds run low nationwide, 45 states saw a rise in cases in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University.
As students head back to the classroom a new national survey from Kaiser Family Foundation shows 63 percent of parents want mask requirements at schools, but 58 percent of parents with children ages 12 to 17 believe vaccines should not be required.
Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine Dr. Peter Hotez said, “There’s only one way to manage this, and that is to demand that everybody in the classroom is masked and that everyone that walks into that school who’s vaccine eligible is vaccinated.”
California teachers and other school staff will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing under a new order by the state’s governor.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said, “We think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open.”
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order requiring masks in schools and daycare.
As schools battle this issue, some businesses are trying to decide whether or not to mandate vaccines for employees.
In its latest forecast released Wednesday, the CDC ensemble predicts 630,000 to 662,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by September 4.
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