A hospital in Idaho is 99 percent full and warning that it may have to transfer coronavirus patients to hospitals in Seattle and Portland, Ore. Medical centers in Kansas City, Mo., turned away ambulances on a recent day because they had no room for more patients. And in West Allis, just outside Milwaukee, an emergency field hospital erected on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair admitted its first virus patient this week.

More than 41,000 people are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus in the United States, a 40 percent rise in the past month, and cooler weather that pushes more people indoors is threatening to expand the outbreak still more. At least 14 states saw more people hospitalized for the virus on a day in the past week than on any other day in the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Seven more states are nearing their peaks…

In Utah, officials sounded frustrated on Thursday as they issued urgent pleas.

“Our health care system is at capacity, our health care providers are overwhelmed and exhausted, our public health system is stressed,” Dr. Angela Dunn, the state epidemiologist, said.

“I don’t know what to do anymore,” Dr. Dunn added. “I’m really not trying to scare anyone, I’m just trying to inform you of what’s going on.”