‘We are simply breaking’: Nurses overwhelmed as COVID cases trend upward

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE/CNN/NBC) - The United States is among the nations with the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases.

The rate of new COVID hospitalizations among people in their 30s increased by nearly 300 percent over the past month, according to the CDC.

The number of new US cases this month is more than three times the numbers for Iran and India and health officials are concerned the upward trend will continue. More than 1.5 million new COVID cases so far this month in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“Some of us thought that we might see a surge come in the wintertime, but now we’re having a surge in the summer, when this was supposed to be the quiet period,” Dr. Leana Wen, CNN Medical Analyst said.

Eight states account for around 24 percent of the nation’s population but about 51 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the US: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas, according to a CNN analysis of Health and Human Services data.

“This is not staying in the South,” Dr. Peter Hotez Dean from Baylor College of Medicine said. “This force of infection is so strong we’re now seeing it move up into the Midwest.”

A nurse in Missouri talked about how overwhelming the situation is with primarily unvaccinated COVID-19 patients filling up hospitals and intensive care unit beds.

“We are simply breaking under the pressure,” Shannon Hoffmeyer, ICU nurse at Capital Region in Jefferson City said. “I don’t know how many people have to continue to die from this for the public to realize we really really need their help. I’ve literally had families have to watch their loved one die on a phone call or standing at a doorway, like they’re some zoo display animal, and watch them suffocate. And we try to make them as comfortable as they can because they haven’t been there.”

In Memphis, thousands of counterfeit COVID vaccination cards seized by Customs and Border Patrol Officers.

Investigators said the cards were mainly supposed to go to residential address and some businesses. The CDC warns, fake COVID vaccine cards are on the rise with more employers and colleges requiring people get the vaccine.

In Oklahoma, several hundred people showed up for a rally at the state capitol protesting the COVID vaccine and mask mandates.

“I don’t to be forced into it because that starts to infringe on our rights,” Karen Monahan, who attended the rally said.

As kids go back to school across the country, the mask debate rages on. Medical experts say people need to use every tool for their protection to keep transmission down.

“We’re already seeing schools open up and then shut her and close in Arkansas and Mississippi because of this,” Hotez said. “So we have to be adults and we have to take a step back and say, ‘Hmm, what do we want to really do? What’s our goal here?’ And if our goal is to get our kids through the school semester, the reality is every single person who walks into a school has to be masked.”