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It is normal for ICUs to be at or near capacity. This is also misleading journalism. Most ICUs are in “surge” cities right now are 20-30% Covid.

Reporting that they are at capacity intimates that they are packed full of Covid patients and overflowing.

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> Reporting that they are at capacity intimates that they are packed full of Covid patients and overflowing.

No, it suggests that if the COVID numbers go up, someone who should get ICU treatment, whether COVID or not, won't get it because there won't be capacity. Which is kind of an important fact in places where COVID numbers are trending upward.

If your ICU is at 80% capacity, with 20% COVID and 60% everything else, that means you can DOUBLE the number of COVID patients there before running out of space, whereas if all of the patients were COVID patients you could only accommodate an increase of 25%.

Yes, hitting 100% is bad no matter what percent of patients are there because of COVID. But what percent of patients are there for COVID informs how large an increase of cases can be managed.

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