Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) show that there is a serious shortage of health care workers in more than a dozen states.. In Texas and Hawaii, hospitals are setting up tents to expand space. The federal government has transferred hundreds of ventilators to Florida, rarely drawing on the national strategic reserve of ventilators.
At the same time, in some severely affected states, hospitals say they are reaching full capacity, selectively canceling surgeries and refusing referrals again, sounding the alarm in some places where the number of cases is just beginning to pick up.
"the most important thing is that we are short of people," said Hilton Raethel, chief executive of Healthcare Association of Hawaii. The agency has just signed 550 people, mainly nurses, at a cost of $46 million in eight weeks.
Rochelle Walensky, head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at a news conference on Thursday that an average of 9700 patients had been hospitalized in the past seven days, an increase of 31 per cent over the previous week.
At least 15 per cent of hospitals in 17 states are severely understaffed, up from 12 two weeks ago, according to HHS.