Another day, another record for COVID hospitalizations, with more than 3,700 across Tennessee. Hospitals are far more stretched than during the winter surge because of how many people need critical care.

In the ICU, each nurse can only handle a couple of patients because they require so much attention. And there are hundreds more COVID patients in Tennessee ICUs than there were at the previous high point.

“Even though we’ve had rooms available for people at times, we just haven’t had the nurses to staff these patients,” says Dr. Brett Campbell at Ascension Saint Thomas West.

Last week, the Tennessee Department of Health made $10 million available to assist with bringing in traveling nurses, though hospitals say they will need more money. And a total of 16 hospitals are now receiving some staffing help from the Tennessee National Guard.

Ascension has had to get creative about moving patients out of the ICU as quickly as possible to make space for others. Other ICUs have added beds and increased nurse-to-patient ratios.

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While hospitalizations are still climbing in Middle and East Tennessee, Memphis and West Tennessee are beginning to flatten off.

“They are still critically full, but they are starting to see it slow down just a little bit,” Dr. Lisa Piercey, the state’s health commissioner, said on Thursday.

Piercey says it’s a hopeful sign since the western part of the state saw the first cases of the more contagious delta variant. Neighboring Arkansas and Mississippi have also seen a downturn in hospitalizations recently.

But COVID cases are still rising, with an average of 7,700 new cases a day. And hospitalizations tend to keep climbing until several weeks after new cases drop off.

State health officials say the best thing anyone can do to help is take the COVID vaccine. Even in the state’s largest ICUs, only a few COVID patients are vaccinated. For example, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center this week, no COVID patients on a ventilator were vaccinated.

Courtesy Tennessee Department of Health

As of Tuesday afternoon, 3,705 patients in Tennessee hospitals had tested positive for COVID-19, with more than 1,000 in ICUs.