even under way, sooner. and meaning that living with covid is not an option. the authorities now left with little choice but to enforce harsh measures, no longer necessary in other parts of the world. the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention says a whopping 97% of those hospitalized in the u.s. are unvaccinated. louisiana has picked up its vaccination pace, but it s too late to stop its current jump in new infections. one baton rouge hospital is seeing the number of patients with covid increase rapidly. most there had the chance to get a vaccine, but they did not. and now they are very, very sick and very regretful, as miguel marquez now reports. reporter: amy matson struggles to breathe. what does it feel like to have covid? exhausting.
us. thank you so much. i really appreciate it. my pleasure. so just about look, the people i ve loved the longest and the most in this world, besides my fiance, right, are in baton rouge, louisiana. that s my hometown. so that s why i m so intense about this tonight, because i ve seen the cdc, the document that cnn has confirmed. i m speaking to my family there, and i m seeing what s happening. my hometown of baton rouge, where if you want to see what delta running rampant can do, one hospital has more patients right now than at any other point in this pandemic. here s miguel marquez. reporter: amy matson struggles to breathe. what does it feel like to have covid? exhausting. extremely frustrating.
miguel marquez joins me now with his reporting. have you seen it all. truly, with you were on the font lines in the e.r. when the pandemic began and then there when people were getting vaccinated. and now you re here now to see people who are unwilling to and facing dire consequences. believe me, if i never had to go into another covid icu, i would be perfectly happy not to. i am vaccinated. i am wearing a mask again even though i m vaccinated. and when i travel and i do all of the this stuff, i make sure and do that because places like louisiana, arkansas, mississippi, all places i ve been in the last several weeks, covid is everywhere. the delta variant is everywhere. and while the numbers may not show it, doctors say it is infecting people in rural and cities but more deadly as well. amy matson struggles to breathe. what does it feel like to have covid?
why they put off getting a shot until it was tragically too late. amy matson struggles to breathe. what does it feel like to have covid? exhausting, extremely frustrating. tiring. and the fact that i am here now, i am furious with myself. why? because i was not vaccinated. not anti-vaccine, she says she just didn t get around to it. the 44-year-old is now one of dozens of covid-19 patients in baton rouge s our lady of the lake regional medical center. her oxygen low, her doctor says she might need a ventilator. just don t want anyone else winding up like me, especially when the vaccine is so easy to get now. the delta variant now prevalent in bayou state, not only is it enormously