Mississippi and Louisiana have some of the worst vaccine rates and highest Covid hospitalizations in U.S. - CNBC

Two of the states hit hardest last week — Mississippi and Louisiana and — have the nation's worst and fourth-worst vaccination rates and rapidly climbing Covid hospitalizations.

The surge in average new cases, which have jumped by more than 105% over the past week to a seven-day average of 7,592, has some Louisiana residents rushing to get vaccinated, state officials said.

Just 41.2% of the state's residents have had at least one Covid shot, according to CDC data, but many are rushing to get them as evidence mounts that the delta variant is attacking mostly unvaccinated people, state officials said.

Across the nation, roughly 73% of available hospital beds are currently in use, about 4.5% are taken up by Covid patients, according to CDC data.

In Louisiana, Covid patients are using 8.4% of all available beds and about 16.8% of ICU beds, according to the CDC.

Covid patients in Mississippi are taking up 7.2% of all hospital beds and 23% of ICU beds.

Dobbs said there are currently 13 hospitals across Mississippi that have "zero ICU beds and a significantly higher number than that have less than 10% availability." He said 93% of the state's Covid cases and 89% of the deaths in the past month are among unvaccinated individuals.

Vaccine reluctance is high across the state, officials said, adding that they are trying to convince residents one person at a time to get the shots.