The delta variant is taking a grim toll on the Tri-State.
Area hospitals continue to set records for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and those patients continue to get younger.
It took less than a week to break the all-time record for COVID-19 patients being cared for in Deaconess Health System facilities. On Facebook, Deaconess reported that as of Monday, there were 171 patients being treated for COVID-19. That’s nine more than the previous all-time record set just four days earlier.
Of the patients on ventilators at Deaconess, ninety five percent were unvaccinated.
Owensboro Health has an even more shocking number, also reported Monday. Of the fifty four COVID patients there, a dozen were on ventilators. On their Facebook page, Owensboro Health also broke that down by age. Of the dozen patients on ventilators, five were under sixty years old. One of those was listed as being under twenty years old.
Last Friday, Ascension St. Vincent Evansville reported forty four patients hospitalized with COVID-19, with twelve in intensive care.
Health officials emphasize that the numbers are real, and that unvaccinated individuals are at much greater risk of severe disease and death from the latest variant of the coronavirus.
