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Comment by eli | Hacker News Reader

I believe a higher percentage of ICU beds are occupied nationally than at any point in the pandemic: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/hospitalization-7-day-trend

If ICU overflows are when we pull out all of the stops, can we pull out just some of the stops before it gets that dire?

It's already not great. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/overwhelmed-by-omicron-surg...

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> I believe a higher percentage of ICU beds are occupied nationally than at any point in the pandemic

According to the data you linked:

   COVID ICU Beds Occupied:

   January 17-23, 2022 : 26,236
   January 4-10, 2021  : 29,175

So there were 2,939 (or ~11%) more beds occupied due to COVID about a year ago.

Sure but that's not what I said. A higher percentage of all ICU beds are occupied today than at any point on the graph. If you need an ICU bed and one isn't available, you probably don't really care if that's because too many covid patients or reduced ICU capacity or a shortage of nurses.

In any event, would you agree that hospitals cancelling elective surgeries is indicative of an overworked system?

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