根据美国约翰斯·霍普金斯大学数据，截至9月6日，美国新冠肺炎累计确诊病例逼近4000万例，死亡病例已超过64.4万例。这意味着，每8个美国人中就有1人确诊，每510个美国人中就有一人死于新冠肺炎。
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据美国广播公司（ABC）报道，由于德尔塔变异毒株的扩散，美国夏威夷州近期疫情恶化尤为严重。7月前，该州的7天平均日增病例数为46例，而到了9月3日，该数字已暴涨至881例，当地医院不堪重负。
The state of Hawaii is struggling with an unprecedented and disastrous surge in COVID-19 cases. Before July, Hawaii reported a seven-day average of 46 daily cases. On September 3, that number stood at 881.
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当地医护人员称，7月以来游客人数增加，病例数开始大增，然而当地政府却未能实施去年承诺的一些列防控措施，包括加强快速病毒检测和加强对感染病例接触者的追踪等。
“Travel started increasing in July and we started seeing our cases rising,” health care workers in Hawaii say the state has failed to implement a variety of measures officials agreed to last year, including ramping up rapid testing and businesses and improving contact tracing.
医护人员指责是当地政府的不作为导致了该州目前糟糕的情况，并称如果当地政府再不采取有效措施，该州医院可能将面临“严酷的危机（a grim crisis）”，甚至可能将需要对有限的医疗资源实行“配给制”（ration health care）。
They say a lack of government action is worsening an already crippling surge of coronavirus cases in the islands, and without effective policy changes the state’s limited hospitals could face a grim crisis. “Soon we’re going to be in a situation where we’re going to ration health care,” said Dr. Jonathan Dworkin, an infectious diseases specialist in Hawaii.
一位夏威夷州传染病专家乔纳森·德沃金称，对有限的医疗资源进行分配将会非常“丑陋（ugly）”。“这意味着我们要需要做出谁死谁活的决定。”他表示，“我痛恨以后会出现不得不决定谁能获得氧气的情况。”
Dworkin said that while mandates may be unpopular, rationing Hawaii's limited health care resources is “going to be far more ugly.”
“It involves making decisions about who lives and dies,” he said. “I hate the idea of having to make a decision about who’s going to get oxygen.”
与此同时，美国爱达荷州的疫情也在加重。本周爱达荷州的急诊室就诊人数、住院患者人数和重症监护室患者人数均达到新高。有专家表示，到9月中旬，该州每周可能新增病例3万例。
Idaho hit a grim COVID-19 trifecta this week, reaching record numbers of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and ICU patients. Medical experts say the state will likely see 30,000 new infections a week by mid-September.
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由于当地医院床位和工作人员严重短缺，再加上爱达荷州是全美疫苗接种率最低的州之一，有些医院已不得不准备遵循“危机状态下”的护理标准，即将稀缺的医疗资源给予最有可能存活下来的病人。
With a critical shortage of hospital beds and staff and one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates, Idaho health providers are growing desperate and preparing to follow crisis standards of care, which call for giving scarce resources to patients most likely to survive.
美国爱达荷州圣卢克地区医疗中心医护人员尼拉杰·索尼表示：“在我们所有的地方，我们的住院病房都已满负荷运转，所以病人要么好起来可以回家了，要么就死于疾病，这样才会空出床位。”
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综合来源：央视网，ABC News, Associated Press
