09/05/2021

A COVID Surge Is Overwhelming U.S. Hospitals

Among doctors, there are fears that care will have to be rationed

The U.S. healthcare system is again buckling under the weight of a COVID-19 surge that has filled more than 100,000 hospital beds nationwide and forced some states to consider enacting "crisis standards of care" — a last resort plan for rationing medical care during a catastrophic event.

The idea is an alarming sign of how the delta variant has ripped through large swaths of the country — primarily sickening the unvaccinated and straining an already depleted healthcare workforce.

In recent weeks, more than 10 states have reached their highest hospital admissions for COVID-19 of the pandemic, from the Southeast to the Pacific Northwest. And the U.S. continues to average more than 160,000 new coronavirus cases a day.

Please select this link to read the complete article from NPR.