The highly contagious variant of Omicron is fueling a huge coronavirus surge that is pushing hospitals near capacity limits in about two dozen states, according to published data by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
At least 80% of staffed hospital beds were occupied Thursday in 24 states, including Georgia, Maryland and Massachusetts, according to the figures.
More troubling, data showed that in 18 states and Washington, DC, at least 85% of beds in adult intensive care units were full, with the most acute bed shortage in Alabama, Missouri, New Mexico. , Rhode Island and Texas.
The pressure on intensive care capacity comes as the Omicron variant has triggered an almost vertical increase in infections and hospitalizations. The country as a whole and 26 states have reported more cases of the coronavirus in the past week than in any other seven-day period.
During that period, an average of more than 803,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported each day in the United States, a 133% increase from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times database. , and 25 states and territories reported their highest weekly rate. workloads yet. Deaths increased 53% to an average of about 1,871 per day.
This has helped push the country’s average hospitalization rate above last winter’s peak. Hospitalizations of people testing positive for the coronavirus this week stand at more than 148,000 a day, a record. The numbers are growing fastest in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the Times database.
(Hospitalization figures include people who tested positive for the virus after being admitted for conditions unrelated to Covid-19, but there is no national data showing the number of people in this category.)
Since Thanksgiving, the White House has sent more than 350 military doctors, nurses, and other staff to 24 states to help hospitals deal with staffing challenges, President Biden said this week, and plans to send 1,000 more troops to six hard-hit states. This is in addition to the more than 14,000 members of the National Guard deployed to 49 states to assist staff at hospitals and other medical facilities, he and other officials said.
On Wednesday, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota says the state would spend $40 million in federal funds to hire more staff to help hospitals there for the next 60 days because “we know we’re going to continue to see a big spike in cases of the Omicron variant.” Hospitals in Minnesota have struggled to keep up since the fall, when the National Guard was called in to help with a flood of patients infected with the more deadly variant of the Delta.
Also on Wednesday, Governor Kate Brown of Oregon said she was sending an additional 700 members of the state’s National Guard – bringing the total deployed to 1,200 members – to help hospitals cope with a surge in numbers of coronavirus patients. “Our hospitals are under extreme pressure,” she wrote on Twitter.
Our hospitals are under extreme pressure. Fueled by the Omicron variant, current hospitalizations exceed 700 and the daily number of COVID-19 cases is alarming. To help I deploy an additional 700 @oregonguard members – for a total of over 1,200 – at hospitals in Oregon.
– Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) January 12, 2022
A day earlier, Governor Janet Mills of Maine said she was enable 169 National Guard members to help deal with capacity constraints in hospitals, joining more than 200 members already deployed in the state.
“I wish we didn’t have to take this step,” Ms. Mills said in a statement, “but the increase in hospitalizations – caused primarily by those who are not vaccinated – is straining the capacity of our system. healthcare, compromising care for the people of Maine, and putting increased pressure on our already exhausted healthcare workers. »
