Jesse Jackson, wife hospitalized with COVID-19

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is pleading with residents who have not been vaccinated to get the COVID-19 shot.

The state reported more than 14,000 new cases of the virus over the weekend, prompting Kemp to announce during a news conference Monday that state employees would be given the day off on Sept. 3 to get vaccinated ahead of Labor Day weekend.

The new surge in positive cases will not affect businesses, Kemp assured.

-ABC News' Cherise Rudy

The average number of people being admitted to the hospital each day with COVID-19 in the U.S. has surged by more than 480% since the end of June, marking the highest number of patients seeking care in over six months.

Doctors are warning of the alarming rates of people entering the hospital with life-threatening conditions.

"What was more terrifying this time is that these people are drowning, they're drowning, and it is an awful thing to see,” Dr. Enrique Lopez, surgical tntensivist at Phoebe Health in Georgia said Monday in a new video message.”And you would look up on the monitor and their oxygen saturation would be near perfect and they would just sit there just starving for air just begging to breathe.”

Nationally, more than 83,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide. Several Southern states are experiencing their worst surge yet, with front line workers raising the alarm about overwhelmed ICUs, and patients waiting in hallways at some hospitals.

"They're just saying over and over again I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe, and it was so different than it was last time," said Lopez. "Now, it wants kids, and those ICUs for those pediatric patients are filling up."

Likewise, as cases have increased, so have pediatric hospital admissions, experts say.

"Even though it's uncommon, it can be very severe and even life threatening in some cases," said Dr. Zac Aldewereld, assistant professor of pediatric critical care medicine and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh. "And yet we have a vaccine to prevent it."

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos

Nearly half of all patients waiting for beds in the Southeast Texas region, which includes Houston and the surrounding areas, are infected with COVID-19, according to officials.

Of the 575 patients stacked up in ambulances or hospital hallways waiting for beds, 230 of them have the virus, officials said. Of the 87 patients who need to be admitted to the intensive care unit, 50 of those have COVID-19.

About 2,500 nurses are being deployed across the state for provide assistance to overcrowded hospitals, the Texas State Department of Health announced Monday.  

Meanwhile, Bexar County, where San Antonio is located, has won the latest schools mask mandate battle with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

A district judge granted a temporary injunction against Abbott’s ruling on Monday, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg announced.

-ABC News’ Bonnie Mclean and Gina Sunseri

More than 121,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported among kids last week, another "substantial" increase from weeks prior, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association said in a report.

Last week, children represented 18% of all reported cases. Children represented 15% of cases the week prior.

Pediatric COVID-19-related hospital admissions have now equaled the most seen at any point of the pandemic.

Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains "uncommon" among children, the two organizations wrote in the report. In states which reported virus-related deaths by age, 0.00%-0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in death.

However, AAP and CHA warned that there is an urgent need to collect more data on long-term impacts on kids "including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects."

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos