Some unvaccinated coronavirus patients are "seriously unwell" in hospitals around Bristol and Weston, a health boss has said.
Christina Gray, Director of Public Health for Bristol City Council, said the majority of people admitted with the virus had not been inoculated against it.
She added that around half of all those currently being treated were on oxygen or in intensive care.
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Ms Gray said: "The majority of people in hospital, not all, but the majority are not vaccinated, and we are beginning to see very heartbreaking stories in the media, and on social media, who are dying and saying 'I wish I had the vaccine'.
"There are about 85 people in our three local hospitals and just over half are seriously unwell, which means they are on oxygen or in ICU."
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Another death within 28 days of catching the virus was recorded yesterday in the Bristol area, while 422 more cases were confirmed.
The City of Bristol has fully vaccinated a relatively low percentage of the population compared to its neighbours, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.
While Bristol sits at 54.2 per cent, BANES is at 63.8 per cent, South Gloucestershire at 69.5, and North Somerset at 76.3.
The health boss explained: "By the time we get well into winter everybody will have been offered their second vaccine
"We’ve got a lower rate than our local system and a lower rate than the South West for a number of reasons.
"We’ve got more of our population under 30 and the under 30s have been called up later, but also we’ve got pockets of vaccine hesitancy, pockets of deprivation and people for whom English is not their first language.
"We’re in common with other cities in that challenge but we have set up lots of pop-ups where we take it into communities and make it easier."
Ms Gray encouraged people to "do the right thing" in still taking measures to protect against the virus, such as wearing a face mask and social distancing.
"We are expecting to have a very challenging winter for the NHS which will be from Covid circulating, a little bit worse than in summer, but also other diseases which haven’t been circulating due to lockdown.
"We encouraging people to do lateral flow tests to pick up if you’re positive and asymptomatic, but if you’ve got symptoms, book a PCR test to confirm it," she said.
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