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As the crush of incoming Covid-19 patients continues to strain hospitals across the US, officials across several states are worried their hospitals will be overwhelmed as the holiday season approaches. A record-high 96,039 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized in the US as of Monday evening, according to the Covid Tracking Project. (Almasy, Yan and Holcombe, 11/30)

Hospitals are facing rising pressure from a surge of coronavirus cases that is threatening to overwhelm their capacity, as the country braces for further escalation following Thanksgiving. Over 93,000 people are in the hospital with coronavirus, a record level, and the number is only continuing to rise, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. (Sullivan, 11/30)

The coronavirus pandemic largely hit urban areas first, but the autumn surge is devastating rural America, too. The U.S. is now averaging more than 170,000 new cases each day, and it’s taking a toll from the biggest hospitals down to the little ones, like Scotland County Hospital. The tragedy is smaller here, more intimate. Everyone knows everyone. (Roberson and Salter, 12/1)

California hospitals are in a new surge of COVID-19 cases, and if trends continue, state intensive care units could be overwhelmed by Christmas Eve. The state saw a new daily high for coronavirus cases, reaching 14,034 and an overall total of 1,212,968. An additional 20 deaths were reported for a total of 19,141.As of Monday, 8,578 people are in California hospitals with COVID-19. Overall, 75% of ICU beds are occupied — and without intervention could reach 112% by Dec. 24, according to projections shared by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday. (Oxner, 11/30)

Rhode Island is opening two field hospitals and public health officials are pleading with residents to stay home as a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases pushed hospitalizations to near-record levels. A 335-bed field hospital run by Care New England opened Monday in Cranston, while a 594-bed facility at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence will begin receiving COVID patients Tuesday. Fewer than a dozen patients were expected to be admitted in Cranston on Monday, while the Providence site anticipates about two dozen on its first day. (Fitzpatrick and Freyer, 11/30)

More than 4,400 Pennsylvania coronavirus patients were in hospitals on Monday morning, a record increase that the state’s top health official called “a concerning milestone,” while New Jersey sharply cut the number of people allowed to gather outdoors and nixed high school ice hockey until January. While too early to know how much the virus had spread at Thanksgiving celebrations, officials advised anyone who traveled to quarantine and were already asking people to begin preparing to stay home for Christmas, Hanukkah, and other winter celebrations. (McDaniel, Steele, McCarthy and Laughlin, 11/30)

Idaho hit a record high number of patients admitted to intensive care units because of COVID-19 on Friday and Saturday, according to Idaho Department of Health and Welfare data published Monday. The department reported a record 110 ICU patients with COVID-19, breaking the previous record of 108 patients set on Nov. 23. In the last two weeks, as ICU admissions have increased, the average number of patients in intensive care reached 94.9 per day. (Blanchard and Scholl, 11/30)

Indiana now ranks second in the nation for COVID-19 hospitalizations per capita, according to an IndyStar analysis of available data. Roughly 50 out of every 100,000 Hoosiers are now hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase from last week that builds on an alarming trend that is straining the state’s hospital system. (Rudavsky and Hopkins, 12/1)