The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Missouri jumped by 27 percent over the fourth of July weekend as the state faces a massive COVID-19 surge.
The Delta variant, a more-contagious strain of the virus, is sweeping through the state, causing cases to double from around 400 cases a day at the start of June to 800 cases a day at the start of July.
Missouri now leads the country in new cases per capita over the last two weeks.
As of Monday, CoxHealth of Springfield, Missouri, and the city's other hospital, Mercy Springfield, were treating 213 COVID-19 patients, up from 168 on Friday.
As recently as May 24, the two hospitals had just 31 patients.
Missouri hospitals are running low on ventilators as they experience a summer surge of the virus
'After what we've seen in the last month everyone is just holding their breath, especially after a holiday weekend like this, knowing that there were large gatherings,' said Erik Frederick, the chief administrative officer of Mercy Springfield.
In Missouri, only 45 percent of residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and just under 40 percent are fully vaccinated.
Massive Fourth of July celebrations held over the weekend are cause for concern looking forward as well.
CoxHealth has been transferring out four or five patients a day for the past week to 10 days as it tries to bring in more traveling nurses to help, said Ashley Kimberling Casad, vice president of clinical services at the hospital.
'Our projections are only showing us continuing to go up,' she said, noting that positivity rates are spiking.
'We generally see an increase in hospitalizations about two weeks after big events, so knowing it was the holiday weekend and probably lots of people spent time with family and friends
