A number of hospitals in Michigan are more than 90% full as a pandemic surge sweeps through the state right before Christmas.

Dozens have staff being pushed to the breaking point with 90% capacity. Another thirty say they are over 90 percent, and eight hospitals in the state say they are 100% full.

Michigan health officials say the ongoing fourth surge of COVID cases has some patients waiting for days in emergency departments for an ICU bed to open up. The numbers are at their highest point since the beginning of the pandemic hospitalizations in April of 2020.

More than 6,000 Michiganders died of COVID in the first week of December.

The federal government announced this week that military medical personnel would be committed starting in January to lifting some of the burden on tired staffs fighting COVID again around the clock.