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Hospitals Are Now More Packed Than Ever in Pandemic

But it’s not because of COVID.

Hospitalizations have skyrocketed—and it’s not just COVID-19 causing the surge, according to CNN’s analysis of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data. Only 6 percent of hospitalized patients are suffering from COVID-19, according to the data, but more than 80 percent of beds are in use across the United States, an increase of 8 percentage points in two weeks and the highest number since the pandemic’s Omicron wave. Hospitals are filling up mostly because of the flu, Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety with the American Hospital Association, told CNN on Friday. “The rates are higher because we are seeing patients with the flu in many parts of the country and that has brought a lot of older adults and some young children into the hospitals. Additionally, RSV is filling pediatric beds and cribs along with patients who are sicker now due to putting off care during Covid-19, which has required more intensive and complex care,” she said in a statement to CNN on Friday.