US hospitalizations from COVID-19 hit all-time high

Coronavirus hospitalizations in the U.S. have hit an all-time high as of Monday, with more than 121,000 people hospitalized nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

This figure includes 22,592 intensive care patients, an increase from 16 percent capacity in September to 40 percent.

A continued increase could put overwhelmed hospitals in the position of having to ration care, CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner said in an appearance on the network.

“If you don’t have respirators, you don’t have nurses to care for patients, you don’t have ICU beds, we will have to have these terrible discussions with families, which is why people need to stay home, and when they go out, they need to wear a mask,” he said.

Individual states are also facing record highs in hospitalizations. On Monday, Texas reported 11,351 patients, surpassing a July 22 high of 10,893. The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council said the area also hit a new peak with 3,476, according to a local ABC affiliate.

North Carolina also hit a new high for hospitalizations Monday, according to data from the state Department of Health and Human Services. In the past six weeks, the adults in the state’s intensive care units for the virus have doubled, while overall coronavirus hospitalizations have doubled in the last 38 days, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

“If you’d asked anybody back in March, I don’t think anybody would have predicted we’d be where we are today, still battling this pandemic,” Johnston UNC Health Care President and CEO Tom Williams told the newspaper.

Arkansas, meanwhile, recorded its own new peak in coronavirus hospitalizations Monday with 1,155.

“It will take a few days to know whether the increase in hospitalizations is the result of buildup after the long Christmas weekend,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said, according to a local ABC affiliate. “Regardless, the high number of cases continues to strain our health care system.”