2LT International News

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas: Only eight intensive care unit beds were available on Monday in the state of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, Governor of Arkansas said, as the rapidly spreading Delta variant of COVID-19 drove up cases and hospitalizations in the U.S. to a six-month high.

In neighboring Texas, Governor Greg Abbott asked hospitals to postpone elective surgeries as the variant raged throughout the region, including many southern states with low vaccination rates.

Nationwide, new COVID-19 cases have averaged 100,000 for three consecutive days, up 35 percent over the past week, according to a Reuters tally of public health data. Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas reported the highest number of new cases in the past week, based on population.

Hospitalizations increased 40 percent and deaths, a lagging indicator, registered a country-wide rise of 18 percent in the past week.

“We witnessed the largest single-day increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, which eclipsed our previous high. There are currently only eight ICU beds available in the state,” Hutchinson tweeted.

Hutchinson, a Republican, urged Arkansans to get vaccinated against the virus, which many of his constituents have been hesitant to undergo.

Meanwhile, the head of the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, on Sunday, announced a reversal in policy by backing mandated vaccinations for U.S. teachers, to protect students who are too young to be inoculated.

The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is rising across the country, a trend attributed to the Delta variant, according to health experts.

With the virus again affecting the lives of Americans after a brief summer lull, the push to vaccinate reluctant people has gained a new momentum.

The Pentagon, on Monday, said that it will seek the approval of President Biden by the middle of September to require military personnel to be vaccinated.