The Delta variant is infecting people, mostly the unvaccinated, at a staggering pace. Tennessee hospitals are filling up with patients and there is no end in sight.
For more information: Shelby County COVID-19 Case Counts , Tennessee Statewide COVID Hospitalizations
Doctors fear they may have been wrong when they predicted the latest surge was about to peak. WREG spoke with Dr. Stephen Threlkeld about this alarming trend.
“We have made a living on underestimating this virus every aspect of it and its behavior and do I think we would be very foolish not to take it very seriously moving into the winter months ahead of us”, Dr. Threlkeld said.
“It is increasingly the case as we look around in the ICU and see only people who are unvaccinated in those ICUs and dying and the sad reality is its becoming a choice and people are choosing not to be protected and unfortunately a small number of them pay for that choice with their very lives,” Dr. Threlkeld told us.
More than 700 people are currently hospitalized with Covid-19 in Shelby county. That number is expected to rise as some of the thousands of people recently infected become sick.
There is a growing concern that the Labor Day weekend may make things worse with only 42% of the state fully vaccinated.
The CDC as well as local health leaders are advising that if you are unvaccinated, to stay home from the festivities.
