increase by more than 50%. the situation has reached a very real crisis in alabama. the hard-hit state has started using mobile trailers to store bodies for the first time since the pandemic began because so many people are dying so quickly. joining me now is dr. kierstin kennedy chief of medicine. dr. kennedy, i just want to start, what is it like on the ground right now, what are you seeing in a state with low vaccination rates. and the public health official saying yesterday clearly this is a crisis. what are you seeing on the ground? good morning, i ve been a faculty member here for a little over ten years and i ve never seen anything like this. i realize all of our medical units have become covid unit and same or the icus. we re spilling over into the cardiac icus, the neural icus.
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they have noticed a trend over the last four days, folks who are dying have been unvaccinated, at least people in their 20s who were completely healthy prior to being diagnosed with the covid-19 being diagnosed with covid-19. right now we are inside of the mississippi coliseum and this is where friends, family and members of law enforcement are preparing to say good-bye to the heinz county sheriff, lee vance, he was 63. the coroner said he died because of covid complications. this is what health officials and members of the community do not want to see happen. about two miles away from here, a parking garage, the lower level of it, has been transformed into a covid unit. now, we want to be very clear, that parking garage, that space will not treat severely ill patients with covid but it is for patients who need minimal care. for example, they might need
under way, christi. inside this parking structure behind me, the lower level has been transformed into a covid unit. we want to be clear, covid patients who need critical care treatment won t be seen on that lower level of the parking garage. it is for patients who need minimal care. if you step inside and take a look where you would normally see parked cars, there are 20 hospital beds. this came on the same day the state reported more than 5,000 new covid cases and more than 30 deaths. we heard from a state health official, dr. thomas dobbs. he says the data is showing a troubling trend over the last four days. listen in. we reported the largest number of covid cases a day that we ever have. we reported 5,023 cases and 31 deaths today. 166 nursing home outbreaks.
to stand in the gap to inform these people that this virus is killing folks. it is really, really serious. yes. most of our patients get in tieu baited. once intubated, you re not going back to work. it is common for patients to get tracheostomy, tracheotomy and have dialysis regularly. the virus is causing kidney failure, liver disease, strokes. so no, you re not going back home, you re not going back to work anytime soon, if you make it off the covid unit, and if you make it off the covid unit, you may be going home with supplemental oxygen because you re still having a hard time breathing.