A second field hospital has opened in Mississippi as the surging delta variant overwhelms the University of Mississippi Medical Center with new COVID cases.
The first emergency field hospital opened last week with federal government backing after hospitalizations began spiking in Mississippi, but now emergency wards have been set up in car parks as ICUs and makeshift wards alike are overrun with patients, many of them young people.
Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates of all US states.
The State Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said the latest surge is predominantly impacting younger, unvaccinated people, as 20,000 Mississippi students have been quarantined for COVID-19 exposure.
'Instead of seeing women bury their parents, we're seeing women bury their children,' he said on a visit to a hospital ward on Tuesday afternoon.
'It´s a sad and heartbreaking thing.'
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Five intensive care beds, part of the new 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital, are set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages
The University of Mississippi Medical Centre has been overrun with patients suffering from the delta variant of COVID-19, and has been forced to open several makeshift wards
The second makeshift ward was opened on Wednesday by Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, after the first was opened last week with federal government backing
Portable ventilation units were hauled into the garages of the medical center to provide treatment to increasing numbers of patients
Two makeshift wards have now been constructed in the hospital parking area
The Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital is the second makeshift hospital to be introduced after the University of Mississippi Medical Center could no longer cater for patients and sent them to wards in the parking garages
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More than 392,300 people have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic in Mississippi, a state of about 3 million people. At least 7,880 have died since.
Dobbs likened the newest Mississippi surge to a 'tsunami' and it has overwhelmed the state's hospital system.
On July 27, some 726 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus. By Tuesday August 16, that figure stood at 1,623.
Patients were waiting in hallways and emergency rooms, with no beds and no staff to immediately tend to them.
The second makeshift ward has been spearheaded by Christian relief charity Samaritan's Purse.
The North Carolina-based relief organization arrived Sunday with more than 50 more medical professionals to erect tents with 32 more beds.
University of Mississippi Medical Center spokesperson Marc Rolph was somber about unfolding events.
'It´s unbelievable that we´re doing this again within what? 6 days? Heartbreaking,' he said of two field hospitals that have gone up.
Dobbs said the virus situation in Mississippi is the worst its ever been, but even the latest field hospital will have a big impact, saying it would bring care for those 'who might not get care of otherwise.'
State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Tuesday that about 20,000 Mississippi students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure - 4.5% of the public school population, according to the latest enrollment figures.
The state called on the federal government for help, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of three dozen physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists last week to set up the first emergency field hospital.
Dr. Thomas Dobbs likened the newest Mississippi COVID surge to a 'tsunami' as he highlighted the need for a 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages
Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates of all US states
State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Tuesday that about 20,000 Mississippi students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure
Samaritan's Purse is known for its medical missions across the world, including in Liberia, West Africa, where it was on the frontlines of the Ebola outbreak. It is currently also in Haiti helping out after a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake there.
Since the pandemic's start, the charity has set up five other emergency hospitals in areas of the world hardest hit by the virus, including in Italy, New York City and Los Angeles County.
Edward Graham, assistant to the vice president of programs and government relations at Samaritan's Purse, said his physicians are using their training fighting Ebola and other emergencies to tackle the virus in Mississippi.
'These hospitals were designed for overseas use; we never thought we´ll be doing this,' he said. 'But our neighbors here in Mississippi have called and asked for, and we've responded.'
The inflatable tents - negative pressure, to keep the virus inside - are anchored by cinderblock in case of storms or high winds.
Five beds thus far have been set up to treat intensive care patients with ventilators.
Outside the tents, orange fencing marks the entrance to the 'hot zone,' where only staff clothed in full PPE - two pairs of gloves, protective gowns, goggles, hair nets, rubber boots, face coverings - can go. Before staff leave to enter the 'clean zone,' they must wash with bleach water.
Briefing journalists on Tuesday, the medical center's head, LouAnn Woodward, renewed pleases for people to get vaccinated, noting the health care workforce is exhausted and traumatized. Only 34% of the state's population is fully vaccinated.
Woodward said that while Samaritan's Purse is responding to a 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.
