With hundreds of staff out sick amid the latest COVID-19 surge, University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City said it will postpone about 20 percent of its surgeries for at least a week, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Jan. 4.

With hundreds of workers out sick during the latest COVID-19 surge, Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System temporarily closed 97 beds as of Jan. 3, the system said.

Richmond-based Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center is postponing nonurgent surgeries and procedures that need a hospital bed or donated blood products as it deals with a COVID-19 surge.

Centura-Avista Adventist Hospital — the only full-service hospital in Louisville, Colo. — has closed for the foreseeable future due to smoke damage from the Marshall fire that spread across Boulder County. 

Springfield, Pa.-based Crozer Health is moving the inpatient obstetric unit at Drexel Hill, Pa.-based Delaware County Memorial Hospital to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pa., effective Jan. 21.

The U.S. recorded 1,082,549 new daily COVID-19 cases on Jan. 3, an all-time high, according to data from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 

Junction City, Kan.-based Geary Community Hospital will close its intensive care unit by Feb. 1 because of fiscal problems and the nursing shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hospitals in the Chicago area are delaying nonurgent surgeries and other procedures not risking patient safety after a plea to do so from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has temporarily closed its labor and delivery unit amid a staffing shortage, the hospital confirmed to Becker's.

Radnor, Pa.-based Main Line Health, which serves parts of Philadelphia and its western suburbs, announced Jan. 2 it will pause all nonemergent surgeries for the next two weeks as it deals with a near-record COVID-19 surge, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Tower Health closed Jennersville Hospital in West Grove, Pa., on Dec. 31. The system will shutter a second hospital by the end of January. 

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Health and Hospital Association urged hospitals last week to delay nonurgent surgeries and other procedures not risking patient safety to prepare for a "likely" post-holiday omicron surge and shortage of staffed intensive care unit beds. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations — which are less sensitive to holiday-related data lags than positivity rates, case counts or deaths — are up in more than half the United States and have doubled over the past two weeks in six states and Washington, D.C.

As hospitals struggle with critical staff shortages, several have had to permanently or temporarily halt some services.

Advocate Aurora Health temporarily closed three urgent care facilities Dec. 29 in the Milwaukee area because of staffing shortages, TMJ4 reported.

Bristow (Okla.) Medical Center will temporarily halt services as Sherman, Texas-based Carrus Health takes over owner management of the facility, KRMG reported Dec. 29.

COVID-19 hospitalizations — which are less sensitive to holiday-related data lags than positivity rates, case counts or deaths — are up in more than half the United States and doubled over the past two weeks in three states and Washington, D.C.

Ohio reported 5,356 COVID-19 hospitalizations Dec. 29, surpassing the previous hospitalizations record of 5,308 on Dec. 15, 2020, Gov. Mike DeWine said in a press release.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is postponing elective surgeries at its hospital in Bethesda, Md., as dozens of staff must isolate or quarantine, Reuters reported Dec. 29.

University of Chicago at Ingalls-Flossmoor (Ill.) temporarily closed its urgent aid location Dec. 29 because of the COVID-19 surge.