Hospitals brace for COVID-19 surge

Hospitals are facing rising pressure from a surge of coronavirus cases that is threatening to overwhelm their capacity, as the country braces for further escalation following Thanksgiving.

Over 93,000 people are in the hospital with coronavirus, a record level, and the number is only continuing to rise, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.

The country is also recording over 150,000 new cases every day, and the numbers are likely to only get worse given a burst of gatherings and travel from Thanksgiving.

Hospitals around the country are steeling themselves for an already-strained situation to get even worse.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which represents academic medical centers across the country, sent a document to its member hospitals last week reminding them of “crisis standards of care,” which are used to cope with an overwhelming number of patients.

“From everywhere, I’m hearing an increasing, growing concern,” said Dr. Janis Orlowski, AAMC’s chief medical officer. “I expect we are going to have another significant surge in numbers and this is on top of what is already an extraordinary number of hospitalizations.”