Missouri is experiencing a surge in cases of COVID-19, particularly the quickly spreading Delta variant, causing a possible shortage of ventilators at some hospitals that’s projected to get worse, reports Ars Technica.
Cases have increased 45 percent statewide in the past two weeks, with hospitalizations rising 24 percent, according to data tracking by The New York Times. Numerous counties across the state have high per-capita infection rates, some as high as one in seven residents infected. But many of the counties with the highest daily new cases are clustered in Missouri’s southwest corner.
Dallas sits just north of the city of Springfield, which has been particularly hard hit in recent days. On the Fourth of July, the chief administrative officer at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, tweeted that the hospital had temporarily run out of ventilators due to an influx of COVID-19 cases. Currently, the hospital’s intensive care unit was 99 percent full, with only one ICU bed available.
Read more at Ars Technica.
