FAIRBANKS, Alaska: Despite once being a leader in Covid vaccination rates, Alaska is now suffering from its worst COVID-19 surge since the start of the pandemic caused by the Delta variant, which has placed extreme pressure on its hospitals.

According to recent data collected by the New York Times, the state was averaging 125 new cases per day for every 100,000 people on Thursday, more than any other U.S. state and up by 46 percent in the last two weeks, and an increase of over twenty times since early July.

On Wednesday, Alaska announced it had signed an $87 million contract for hundreds of temporary health care workers, as well as activated "crisis standards of care" to give hospitals legal protection from triage decisions, forcing them to provide substandard care to some patients.

Although hospitals are struggling, there is no need to implement restrictions, said Republican Governor Mike Dunleavy, but he encouraged unvaccinated people to become vaccinated.

Based on federal data, some 50 percent of Alaska's population are fully vaccinated, compared with the national rate of 55 percent.

In an interview on Tuesday, Jared Kosin, head of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, called the current surge "crippling," adding that many communities in isolated rural areas, where many Alaska Natives live, are now concerned about how to transfer seriously ill cases to Anchorage.

Dr. Philippe Amstislavski, associate professor of public health at the University of Alaska Anchorage, said critically ill people in rural areas often have to be flown to a hospital that can provide the required treatment.

"Unlike in the lower 48, you do not have that ability to move people quickly because of the distances and remoteness," as quoted by the associated Press.

Amstislavski further said that Alaska Natives, who have historically suffered from health disparities, are disproportionately struggling from the latest COVID-19 surge.

A few factors may be contributing to the surge, including summer tourists who brought and spread the virus, noted Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska's chief medical officer.

In an interview on Tuesday, she said, "We are hoping that as the snow falls and we have less people visiting, those numbers will settle down," she told the Associated Press.