About 24% of U.S. hospitals have told the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that they are in the midst of a “critical staffing shortage” as they continue to be slammed by the rising number of COVID-19, Delta and Omicron cases coming through their doors.

Close to 1,200 of approximately 5,000 hospitals say they are short on labor, the largest share of any since the pandemic began. More than 100 other hospitals told CNN last week that they expect to see shortages of their own by the week’s end.

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, told the news outlet that Omicron’s fast-spreading nature may even cut into the ability of hospitals to care for non-COVID patients. “All of that is going to be much, much more difficult because we have a large proportion of the population that is not vaccinated, plenty of high-risk people who are not boosted. That combination sets up a large pool of people who as they get infected will end up really straining the resources we have in the hospitals today."

Driving the shortages is the rising number of infected frontline workers. The lack of available labor is so severe that the CDC recently made the controversial decision to allow healthcare workers who are asymptomatic to return to work after seven days if they test negative. This isolation period can be cut down to five and without a negative test if shortages are severe, according to Politico.

COVID-19 hospitalizations hit a record high Tuesday at 145,982 cases, reported HHS, which surpassed the peak of about 142,200 in mid-January 2021. “We don't have good choices — or the choices that we want,” Shereef Elnahal, the CEO of University Hospital in Newark, N.J. and the state’s former health commissioner, told Politico. He added that 300 of his 3,700 workers are out, mainly due to COVID-19. “Our staffing situation has been the worst it's been since the spring of 2020."

Across the U.S., 39 states have seen a 50% or greater increase in cases over the past week, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. As of last Monday, the seven-day average hit its highest point of 740,594 cases per day, with 24 states seeing their highest seven-day average ever, reported NBC. Hospitalizations have surged in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. And Southern states have seen the largest shifts, with the seven-day averages for hospitalizations in Louisiana up 341 percent and in Florida by 277%.

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