© Bloomberg Inside A Covid-19 Ward As U.S. Cases Rise at Slower Pace(Bloomberg) -- The northern New England states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, all highly vaccinated, are suffering from surges that are taxing hospitals beset by staff shortages and sicker-than-usual patients. He issued an executive order to help hospitals use their space more flexibly to add capacity. He also said the state’s residents would soon be able to order about 1 million at-home Covid tests, for free, in part through a partnership between Amazon and the National Institutes of Health. And he announced a “Booster Blitz” for Dec. 11, when 20 sites around the state will offer third doses. Massachusetts, too, is grappling with a surge that has boosted the number of hospitalized patients to 740 -- far less than previous pandemic peaks but still challenging for under-staffed hospitals.
