ÍáÍáÂþ»­

BEMIDJI -- The number of patients being treated for the coronavirus at Sanford Health's Bagley and Bemidji medical centers have increased by 87% in the last week.

According to Dr. Colleen Swank, Sanford clinic vice president and physician, there are 15 hospitalized with COVID as of Friday, with 13 of them unvaccinated. Of the 15 in the hospital, four of them are in the ICU. In the ICU, three of the four patients are unvaccinated. The vaccinated patient in the ICU, according to Sanford, is on a ventilator.

Swank said one cause for the recent increase has been the new Delta variant strain of COVID-19.

"With the original strain, we were telling people that for every person that tests positive, there was a likelihood of one to two people that they'd pass it on to," Swank said. "Now, it's five to seven people, so it's much more transmissible and contagious."

Another factor, Swank said, is fewer people are making an effort to mitigate the virus than before.

"I know people are sick of COVID-19," Swank said. "It's been a long year and a half, but this is real and it's serious. I think we're even more nervous now than we were a year ago, just because we're seeing people back off from the precautions."

The No. 1 thing Sanford is asking people to do is get vaccinated.

"The vaccine is definitely helping, even with the Delta variant," Swank said. "We're seeing that the vaccines are very effective at keeping people out of the hospital. The Pfizer vaccine is FDA approved and Moderna's will be shortly."

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, Beltrami County, which has recorded 4,659 cases of COVID. In the county, so far 21,590 residents have received one shot and 20,257 are fully vaccinated. Across the state as a whole, 3.32 million Minnesotans have received one dose and 3.12 million are fully vaccinated.

RELATED: COVID cases jump by more than 200% in Beltrami County

Another recommendation from Sanford is for more people to wear masks again.

"The coronavirus is spread in respiratory droplets and we just can't help that when we talk to each other, droplets come out of your mouth," Swank said. "It even happens when you breathe. By wearing a mask, it's preventing those droplets from being pushed out away from you."

In a recent study conducted by researchers from Stanford Medicine and Yale University, mask-wearing was found to be an effective way to reduce the occurrence of COVID-19 in a community setting. In the study, researchers enrolled nearly 350,000 people from 600 villages in Bangladesh.

The study found that the risk for symptomatic, confirmed infections were reduced by 9.3% regardless of mask type, and by 11% with surgical masks.

Swank said mitigation efforts are especially important as more hospital beds are filled up.

"This is circulating in our community," Swank said. "We're seeing hospitals filling up, and they're filling with non-COVID patients now, too. We just had a call from Texas to see if someone could be transferred to Bemidji, they called all the way up here."

Swank also said last year, because of an emergency waiver, Sanford was able to take in more patients. However, as of Aug. 31, that waiver has expired.