The United States broke its record for Covid-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday, an influx that is pushing medical workers to the brink after nearly two years spent battling the pandemic. Almost 146,000 hospital beds were occupied with coronavirus patients, a number that surpasses the previous peak of around 142,000 just under a year ago, the Department of Health and Human Services said. Put another way, a coronavirus patient now occupies one in five hospital beds, a situation that is attributed to the highly contagious Omicron variant. While the Omicron strain tends to cause less severe illness, there is a skyrocketing number of cases due to unvaccinated people and breakthrough infections. A rising number of infections among doctors and nurses is compounding the pressure on staff already stretched thin. Intensive care units (ICUs) are especially burdened: More than 80 per cent of the almost 81,000 ICU beds are now occupied; Almost 24,000 of these beds contain a Covid patient. Admissions to hospitals have increased by more than 60 per cent in one week, the department data shows.More than 4.1 million new coronavirus infections were detected in the United States during this period, an increase of more than 85 per cent. In the country with 330 million residents, more than 61.5 million people are known to have been infected with the coronavirus so far. More than 839,000 infected people have died. Some 62.6 per cent of the population is considered vaccinated, and 36.5 per cent have received a booster vaccination so far.