The latest:
Mississippi, one of the least-vaccinated states in the U.S., has opened its second field hospital to treat a surge of coronavirus patients.
The Christian charity relief group Samaritan’s Purse arrived in Jackson, Miss., with more than 50 medical professionals, setting up tents with 32 beds in a garage at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Recently, an emergency field hospital with federal backing was set up elsewhere on the medical centre campus.
Health officials say the surging delta variant is overwhelming the state’s hospital system. On July 27, some 726 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus. By Aug. 16, that figure stood at 1,623. The latest report from state health officials said 36 per cent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated. According to the latest report, 41 per cent of people in the state aged 12 and up are fully vaccinated.
Mississippi’s State Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said this wave is impacting younger, unvaccinated people just as schools are resuming. More children are hospitalized, and one died last week.
State epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said about 20,000 Mississippi students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure — 4.5 per cent of the public school population.
Today MSDH is reporting 4,085 more cases of COVID-19 in Mississippi, 36 deaths, and 182 ongoing outbreaks in long-term care facilities. State <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/covid19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#covid19</a> totals: 396,394 cases, 7,916 deaths, and 1,088,155 persons fully vaccinated. Full information: <a href=”https://t.co/YCv9xPyJDk”>https://t.co/YCv9xPyJDk</a> <a href=”https://t.co/B48hJLTCjs”>pic.twitter.com/B48hJLTCjs</a>
—@msdh
The medical centre’s leader, LouAnn Woodward, renewed pleas for people to get vaccinated. She said unlike the natural disaster in Haiti, the situation in Mississippi is a “disaster of our own making.”
“We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat, we have failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves,” she said.
There’s been a total of 396,394 cases and 7,916 deaths in a state of roughly three million people.
The update came after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who is locked in a battle with some local leaders over his ban on mask mandates in school, tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday but so far has no symptoms of the illness, his office said.
–From The Associated Press and CBC News, last updated at 10:10 a.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/420/135/vaccines-aylmer-ont-mauro-170821.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:* 510w")
Aylmer, Ont., is one of the least vaccinated parts of Canada, but the community is using information and targeted campaigns to convince the vaccine hesitant to get COVID-19 shots. 5:59
What’s happening around the world
As of early Wednesday morning, more than 208.6 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s case-tracking tool. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.3 million.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Southeast Asian countries need more help securing COVID-19 vaccines, as the region struggles to contain record infections and deaths, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
New Zealand’s city streets were largely deserted on Wednesday as the country returned to life in lockdown for the first time in six months in a bid to halt any spread of the delta variant.
In Europe, Britain’s health regulator has approved Moderna’s vaccine for use in children aged 12 to 17, weeks after Pfizer’s shot was given the green light ahead of schools reopening.
In Africa, Botswana needs to budget an extra $100 million US to help secure vaccines and equipment as the southern African country battles a third wave of infections, Finance Minister Peggy Serame told parliament.
In the Americas, several doctors in Cuba have taken to social media to decry shortages of medicine, oxygen and other materials needed to battle a dire COVID-19 outbreak, in a rare public denunciation of conditions in the island’s hallowed health-care system.
Ecuador will administer a third vaccine dose to people with weak immune systems and will carry out tests to determine if the rest of the inoculated population also needs a booster, Health Minister Ximena Garzon said.
In the Middle East, Iran on Tuesday reported 50,228 new cases of COVID-19 — yet another single-day high. The country, which is dealing with a surge in cases, also reported 625 additional deaths.
–From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 8 a.m. ET
