Despite having one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States, New England states are suffering from the ravages of the contagious delta variant.
Intensive care units in the region’s hospitals are filling up and staffing is starting to run low. Authorities are imploring the unvaccinated to get the injection. Doctors are not being able to treat other diseases, because they are dedicating almost all of their time to the pandemic.
“I think it’s obviously very frustrating for everyone,” said Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, in charge of compiling COVID-19 statistics for that state.
“We want children to be able to go to school, we want parents to be calm and not have to worry about their children’s education, about their children’s health,” he added.
New England is experiencing record numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths comparable to the pre-vaccine era, mostly among the unvaccinated. Even so, it has not suffered the impact that delta has had in other parts of the country.
The five most vaccinated states in America are all in New England: Vermont ranked first, followed by Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. New Hampshire is in 10th.
Vaccination rates range from 69.4% in Vermont to 61.5% in New Hampshire, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.
Despite having a relatively high vaccination rate – the United States overall has an average rate of 55.5% – there are hundreds of thousands of people throughout the region who, for one reason or another, continue to get vaccinated.
A Rhode Island official stated that, at this point, he no longer believes that the goal of 70% vaccinated is sufficient.
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