ICU occupancy surging in several states: HHS
About 30% of hospitals across the country have more than 80% of their intensive care unit beds filled, according to an internal memo by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services obtained by ABC News.
Roughly 21% of all hospital patients nationwide have COVID-19, which is just 3 percentage points lower than the all-time peak, according to HHS.
The memo said 30% of ventilators in use are occupied by coronavirus patients.
Several states have seen record-level hospitalization levels in the last week, according to HHS.
On Nov. 30, Arkansas recorded 1,063 COVID-19 active hospitalizations, 107 COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU and 211 COVID-19 patients on ventilators, the memo said.
In the week ending Nov. 29, hospital occupancy in Louisiana averaged 64.2% for inpatient beds and 70.7% for adult ICU beds, HHS said.
ICU utilization in New Mexico averaged 95% in that same period, according to the memo.
-ABC News' Josh Margolin