Hospitals Run Low On Nurses As They Get Swamped With COVID

Hospitals now have more non-COVID patients for everything from car accidents to surgeries that were postponed during the outbreak.

The rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hot spots that can no longer keep up with the flood of unvaccinated patients and are losing workers to burnout and lucrative out-of-state temporary gigs. Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana all have more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than any other point in the pandemic, and nursing staff is being stretched thin. In Florida, virus cases have filled so many hospital beds that ambulance services and fire departments are straining to respond to emergencies.