'World is on fire': Kentucky health care workers exhausted amidst latest COVID-19 surge

A record number of patients are hospitalized across the state of Kentucky.

With millions of Americans still unvaccinated, hospitals across the country are once again facing the overwhelming pressure of caring for thousands of COVID-19 patients -- with more than 100,000 people in beds as of Friday. While hospitalization rates in states like Florida and Mississippi, hit hard early in the delta surge, are beginning to decline, other southern states, including Kentucky, are showing no signs of infection and hospitalization rates slowing down. “We walk into the hospital and it feels like the world is on fire,” Dr. Karan Singh, a pulmonologist at Med Center Health in Bowling Green, Kentucky, told ABC News. Statewide, there are more than 2,600 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 -- the highest on record, and currently, just 7% of intensive care beds remain available. At the state's previous peak last December, there were 1,000 fewer patients hospitalized.