Ballad: Sickest patients aren’t vaccinated

As of Wednesday, 87 percent of Ballad Health’s hospitalized COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated, according to health system records.

Ballad publishes its COVID-19 “scorecard” on its website.

Wednesday, 441 patients were hospitalized with the virus. Of those, 88 were in intensive care units, and 94 percent of them were unvaccinated.

Sixty-four patients were on ventilators to assist their ability to breathe, and 97 percent of that group was unvaccinated, according to Ballad.

Across Ballad’s 21-county service area in Virginia and Tennessee, there were more than 133,500 positive COVID cases diagnosed between March 1, 2021 and Wednesday. During the same period, 1,938 people died of COVID-19.

During the seven days leading up to Wednesday, the COVID-19 positive case rate in Ballad’s service area was 44.7 percent. There were 73 deaths from COVID.