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Overwhelmed hospitals are converting chapels, cafeterias, waiting rooms, hallways, even a parking garage into patient treatment areas. Staff members are desperately calling around to other medical centers in search of open beds. Fatigue and frustration are setting in among front-line workers. Conditions inside the nation’s hospitals are deteriorating by the day as the coronavirus rages across the U.S. at an unrelenting pace and the confirmed death toll surpasses 250,000. (Weber and Rankin, 11/19)

Hospitals in at least 25 states are critically short of nurses, doctors, and other staff as coronavirus cases surge across the United States, according to the industry’s trade association and a tally conducted by STAT. The situation has gotten so bad that in some places, severely ill patients have been transferred hundreds of miles for an available bed — from Texas to Arizona, and from central Missouri to Iowa. (Goldhill, 11/19)

Lauren Sharp graduated from nursing school last year. She started working on an adult respiratory floor at a public hospital in East Lansing, Mich. Then in March, the coronavirus struck. “Mentally, it takes such a toll on you. It makes me question so many things and it almost feels like I’m not doing anything — not helping anybody when people just keep coming in and getting sick,” she said. “Nurses are supposed to help people. And I feel like I’m not doing that.” (Youn, 11/18)

The number of hospitalizations from the coronavirus reached nearly 77,000 on Tuesday — a new record. For the country's nurses, the surge is taking a heavy toll, as they grow exhausted, worried and frustrated by disinformation and disregard for safety. Some eight months into the crisis, nurses have been taking to social media, describing grim scenes at work and imploring Americans to stay safe as hospitals reach capacity limits. Nationwide, hospitalizations have been steadily climbing, with the Midwest and the South hit especially hard. In the last week alone, each has seen a roughly 35% spike in hospitalizations, according to the Covid Tracking Project. (Glenn and Inskeep, 11/18)

Struggling to maintain sufficient staff and resources to care for a surge of COVID-19 patients, three hospital executives Wednesday implored Hoosiers to curb the spread of the virus by doing the simple things officials have asked them to do for months. Week after week at his Wednesday coronavirus briefings, Gov. Eric Holcomb has repeated over and over that individuals have the power to tamp down coronavirus by wearing masks, socially distancing and washing their hands. (Rudavsky, 11/18)

Michigan now ranks sixth nationally in coronavirus cases and fifth for the number of COVID-19-related deaths, said Sarah Lyon-Callo, director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, citing data from the last seven days. (Jordan Shamus, 11/18)

As the coronavirus continued its unrelenting spread, more patients were hospitalized in Pennsylvania on Wednesday than ever before, surpassing the state’s late April peak as officials also reported more than 6,000 new cases — the first time the state has seen that many people test positive in one day. In just the last seven days, more than 38,000 people in Pennsylvania have tested positive. That’s about enough people to fill the Wells Fargo Center — twice. (McDaniel, Steele and McCarthy, 11/18)

Nevada on Wednesday reported 1,665 additional coronavirus cases, as the Nevada Hospital Association said the state has reached the highest number of hospitalized patients since the start of the pandemic. There also were three additional deaths reported, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The updated figures posted to the state’s coronavirus website brought totals in Nevada to 125,459 cases and 1,947 deaths since the pandemic began. Newberg, 11/18)

On yet another pandemic barnstorming of the Buckeye State Wednesday, Gov. Mike DeWine asked Ohioans to abide by an overnight curfew he has ordered for three weeks in hopes of stemming the current surge of the new coronavirus." By 10 o'clock, people need to be home," DeWine said outside Lunken Airport Terminal, his final stop of the day after touching down with the same message earlier in Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown and Columbus. (Saker, 11/18)

The pandemic in Alaska is continuing to grow, with the state reporting 551 new COVID-19 cases and record hospitalizations, according to data from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.“ We’re in an acceleration phase (in Alaska),” said Louisa Castrodale, an epidemiologist with the state, during a call Wednesday. “I don’t think we have a hint yet that things are leveling off.” (Berman and Krakow, 11/18)