Straining to handle record numbers of COVID-19 patients, hundreds of the nation’s intensive care units are running out of space and supplies and competing to hire temporary traveling nurses at soaring rates. Many of the facilities are clustered in the South and West.
A new serological study conducted at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan has shown 98% of hospital workers who received the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine have developed a high level of antibodies to fight off the virus.
In March, Marc Price set up a tent outside his primary care practice in Malta, N.Y., where he and his colleagues could don their protective gear to see the daily stream of coronavirus patients. Three weeks ago, the tent was finally upgraded to a shed ahead of snowstorms. But, despite months of constant close contact with Covid-19 patients, staff at the practice have yet to be vaccinated.
In Florida, less than one-quarter of delivered coronavirus vaccines have been used, even as older people sat in lawn chairs all night waiting for their shots. In Puerto Rico, last week’s vaccine shipments did not arrive until the workers who would have administered them had left for the Christmas holiday. In California, doctors are worried about whether there will be enough hospital staff members to both administer vaccines and tend to the swelling number of Covid-19 patients.
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