Pennsylvania health officials are once again encouraging the public to take measures to prevent the state’s health system from being overwhelmed by COVID-19.

“There’s not an unlimited number of hospital beds. More importantly there’s not an unlimited number of staff, doctors, nurses, support staff, EMTs, and health care workers in the most general sense,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health. “The people who make the system work are relying on you to do the right thing.”

Levine held a press conference on Thursday to discuss the rising case counts and the efforts to ensure that the state’s health system has the capacity to treat them.

As of Thursday, 5,000 people are now hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state. More than 1,000 patients are in intensive care.

The number of new cases reported statewide on Thursday was 11,406.

Hospital beds and intensive care units are filling up in counties across the state due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

So far the rising case totals haven’t had an impact on patients who are seeking non-COVID-related care.

But the Department of Health has plans in place if positive tests continue to rise worsens.

The state can force hospitals to reduce elective procedures by 50 percent if their region has a combination of a shortage of hospital beds, a surge in cases, and inadequate medical personnel.

According to data from the department of health, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have been on the rise in Carbon and Schuylkill counties.

But the health networks serving the region say they have enough capacity and manpower to continue providing elective care while treating COVID-19 patients.

Carbon’s highest day for hospitalizations was Saturday, with 15. On Thursday there were 10 patients hospitalized.

Schuylkill had its highest single day total of people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday, with 44. On Thursday it was 43.

Both St. Luke’s University Health Network and Lehigh Valley Health Network said that they have been able to accommodate all patients, COVID-19 or not in their larger networks.

They pointed out that hospital stays on average have been shorter since the pandemic began.

“The impact on our operations has been manageable because St. Luke’s is a Network of 12 hospital campuses that can share and reallocate staff and other resources when doing so is helpful and appropriate,” St. Luke’s said in an email.

St. Luke’s also recently opened two outpatient COVID-19 treatment centers where patients who have tested positive for the virus can receive an infusion of antibodies.

Lehigh Valley Health Network said it currently has 200-230 patients hospitalized throughout the network with COVID-19. They are currently able to accommodate all elective procedures as well as COVID-19 patients.

The Department of Health is using the threat of reduced elective procedures to encourage hospitals to work together on a regional level - sharing resources and manpower.

“It would use up hospital beds and staffing, and those procedures use up PPE. It all relates,” Levine said.

Levine said Thursday she’s worried about modeling that shows the state will run out of intensive care beds this month. More than 85% of the state’s ICU beds are occupied amid an enormous statewide spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations this fall.

The health secretary added that she’s even more concerned about hospital staffing.

While medical-surgical beds can be converted into ICU beds, the supply of medical workers is “not infinite.”

“Hospitals have the ability to divert staff from one area to another, and hospitals can share staff if they absolutely have to as well,” Levine said. “But there is a point where that is straining the health care system … I hear from physicians and from hospital leadership all the time about how strained the hospitals are.”

The National Guard is not available to assist hospitals because they are assisting in nursing homes around the commonwealth. Continuing elective procedures is important for hospitals, many of whom have lost money during the pandemic. A report from August estimated that Pennsylvania’s hospitals lost a total of $5 billion during the pandemic. Government relief funds from the government only covered about two-thirds of the loss.

“Hospitals are going to have to balance their resources to take care of the patients who have COVID-19 as well as the acute patients who don’t have COVID-19,” Levine said.

Around the state

Nearly half of all hospitals in the south-central region of the state, and a third of those in the southwest, anticipate staffing shortages within a week, according to the state Department of Health.

Nurses in the Philadelphia area say they’re overloaded with COVID-19 patients, impacting the quality of care they can provide.

At UPMC Altoona, all 14 medical ICU beds are taken by virus patients, while other virus patients are crowding into other units, said Paula Stellabotte, a medical ICU nurse there.

“We don’t have enough (staff) in the whole building,” Stellabotte told The Associated Press. “We did just get some travel nurses brought in, which will hopefully help. We have some people who have left because they don’t want to keep doing this kind of work” with COVID-19 patients.

Stellabotte said she is frustrated at the lack of support for public education - wear a mask, stay home - and she wishes UPMC would restrict visitors and stop elective surgeries to take some pressure off.

“As soon as one bed’s empty, there’s like two or three (COVID-19 patients) ready to come in,” Stellabotte said. “It’s nonstop.”

At St. Mary Medical Center outside Philadelphia, where hundreds of unionized nurses went on strike over staffing levels last month, nurse John Chapman said Thursday that nurses are expected to care for five, six or even seven COVID patients at a time.

Pennsylvania is averaging 6,800 new virus cases per day, up 23% in two weeks, according to an AP analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project. The state shattered its single-day record on Thursday, reporting 11,406 new cases.

Deaths in Pennsylvania have more than doubled since Nov. 18 to an average of 94 per day.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.