September 8, 2021
The United States continues to be the global hot spot for COVID, with a total of 40,085,811 cases since the start of the pandemic. Overall, some hot spots, like Texas and Florida, have stabilized, but other states, like Idaho, are struggling, especially in rural areas where vaccination rates remain low.
Idaho announced they will allow hospitals to activate “crisis standards of care” which means that they are allowing hospitals to ration care because there aren’t enough staff and beds to care for all the patients who need care.
Here are more COVID updates for travel nurses this week, including what high-paying COVID-19 travel nurse jobs are available right now.
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.
According to the CDC, COVID-19 cases have increased over the last week. This past week, cases rose about 4.9%, which is about double the rate of the previous week’s increase. That average is still 123.6% higher than last summer’s peak, but still 39.7% lower than the lowest peak of the pandemic in January 2021.
Here’s some quick data points about the numbers:
The death count from COVID-19 is also about 3.7% higher than last week, with a weekly current average of 1,047 deaths occurring every day. (Historical deaths are excluded from the CDC’s count).
And although the mu variant has been found in several states in the U.S., Fauci assured the public that the variant is “not an immediate threat.”
A bit of positive news here: hospital admissions overall have slightly decreased since last week. There’s been a 1.7% decrease since last week and according to the New York Times COVID map and tracker, the states with the highest increasing amount of cases are:
Meanwhile, Florida remains the state with the highest number of hospitalizations in the country (15,000 patients currently hospitalized). Fortunately, the rate of new hospitalizations has started to stabilize.
Alaska and Colorado both hit a record number of hospitalizations and Washington has issued a warning after noticing an uptick in hospitalizations following Labor Day weekend.
If you’re looking to travel to a hard-hit area or just wondering what kind of rates for travel nursing jobs are available right now, here’s a sampling of some of the current travel nursing positions available:
Speak with a recruiter about available assignments in COVID-impacted areas today.
Vaccine administration continues to rise slowly and steadily. According to the CDC, 176.7 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated.
62.5% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose
53.2% fully vaccinated
Although vaccines have largely been focused on effectiveness in preventing severe illness and hospitalizations, a new study has also further confirmed the efficacy of vaccines in preventing long-term effects of COVID. A British study found that adults who were vaccinated were 50% less likely to experience long COVID than people who were unvaccinated.
The Biden administration initially thought booster shots would be recommended for all eligible adults this fall, but it appears the CDC is pausing those recommendations for now.
As of right now, the CDC does not recommend booster shots for fully vaccinated adults. They do, however, recommend booster shots for immunocompromised people. That includes:
Interested in assignments in COVID-impacted areas? Start here.