If the spread of the new omicron variant of coronaviruses continues, hospitals in the U.S. could face constraints if 70% of their hospital and intensive care unit beds are occupied.
A nurse is caring for a Covid-19 patient in the intensive care unit. The photo was taken by Nic Coury.
The images are from the same source.
There are 611,917 hospital beds and 65,226 intensive care units in the US, with Covid-19 patients occupying 59,579 of them.
Rhode Island has the lowest hospital capacity in the nation with only about 7% of its beds occupied by Covid-19 patients.
Massachusetts, which last week recorded its highest count of Covid-19 cases since January, is right behind with 87.63% of its hospital beds in use, and multiple hospitals have reported their ICUs are completely full.
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan, Missouri, Maryland, and Washington have more than 80% of hospital beds occupied.
New Hampshire and New Mexico both had high average rates of Covid-19 cases over the past week, and both have a high percentage of ICU beds occupied by Covid-19 patients.
Kansas, Utah, South Dakota, and Mississippi are the only states that have a hospital bedOccupancy below 70%.
There were 149,222 new cases of coronaviruses reported on December 3, up from the previous week's 68,358 cases. New Hampshire and Pennsylvania reported over 10,000 new cases on Wednesday, their highest Covid-19 case counts since the previous winter surge. The 7 day average of hospital admissions rose 8.8% from the previous week. Many states have recommended the shot in preparation for a potential winter surge of coronaviruses after the CDC expanded the eligibility for the booster shot.
Less than a week after the World Health Organization identified a new strain of coronaviruses, the U.S. confirmed its first case. At least ten other states have confirmed omicron cases since then. Delta remains the dominant strain in the U.S., according to the CDC Director.
There were 2.2 million Covid-19 vaccinations in 24 hours.
The U.S. has confirmed the first case of Omicron variant in California.
