* CNN…

Hospitals are more full than they’ve been throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a CNN analysis of data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. But as respiratory virus season surges across the US, it’s much more than Covid that’s filling beds this year.

More than 80% of hospital beds are in use nationwide, jumping 8 percentage points in the past two weeks.

Hospitals have been required to report capacity information since mid-2020 as part of a federal effort to track the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hospitals have been more than 70% full for the vast majority of that time. But they’ve been 80% full at only one other point: in January, during the height of the Omicron surge in the US.

The broader respiratory virus season is in full swing across the US. All but six states are experiencing “high” or “very high” respiratory virus as seasonal flu activity remains “high and continues to increase,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

* Illinois hospitals are now at 82 percent capacity, according to IDPH. Only 5.7 percent of those beds are being taken up by COVID patients.

The last time utilization was this high was back on January 4th, when 5,344 beds were available during the Omicron surge. There are just 5,435 hospital beds available in Illinois today.

On that same day in January, just 260 intensive care beds were available. Today, that number is 403.

…Adding… By the way, the governor’s executive orders that the IPI and pointy wires constantly complain about allow IDFPR to approve out of state and inactive healthcare professionals to work in Illinois at a time when hospitals are still bleeding workers.