Some patients needing intensive care are not getting it with hospitals overstretched in some United States' regions.

This is while in the middle of the pandemic's largest and longest surge.

Hospitals are now prioritizing beds for only the most urgent patients.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States have reached another record on Wednesday with a total of 100,266 following a surge for more than two months in the most geographically rampant spread of the pandemic.

Related story: CDC Advisers to Decide Next Week on Who Gets COVID-19 Vaccine First

Hospital administrators say they are trying ho hire more nurses, and squeezing extra beds onto floors, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. In some cases, patients are being moved across state lines to find room for the critically ill.

Doctors and nurses say that these emergency measures being imposed are not enough anymore. About one in four intensive-care beds nationally is occupied by COVID-19 patients.

This rose to one in 10 in September according to the University of Minnesota's COVID-19 Hospitalization Tracking Project,

Meanwhile, federal data show that more than 1,000 hospitals reported critical staffing shortage as of Wednesday.

Other patients who are less severe but other in normal circumstances be in intensive care now are in rural hospitals or other unites of the hospitals.

Doctors added that some of those staff in those areas lack the skilled staff and technology found in ICUs.

In a Texas hospital, an elderly emergency-room patient with dangerously low blood pressure was not admitted in a room due to shortage.

The patient was instead admitted to a rural hospital without an intensive care unit, according to the small hospital's nursing chief.

The nursing chief, Gena Speer, said that last year such a patient would be easily considered an ICU-level patient. "They're having to downgrade the level of care for some of these other patients," Speer was quoted in a WSJ report.

Dr. Matt Maslonka said that the bar is now higher for patients who need intensive care.

Maslonka works in intensive care at hospitals around Nebraska's capitol of Lincoln.

The U.S. healthcare and public health officials have previously raised concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic could overrun bed capacity in the county.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Meanwhile, new vaccine data showed that two separate vaccine due to be released from pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna appear to be more than 90 percent in preventing COVID-19.

However, that can only be said for people who received two doses taken 21 days apart for Pfizer's vaccine, and 28 days apart for Moderna's potential vaccine.

Related story: Expert Explains How Vaccination Card Works to Track People Getting COVID-19 Shots

A major logistical hindrance involved vaccinating the bulk of the U.S. population will be to ensure that people receive their second shot, according to CBS News report.

To ensure that second doses will be administered, millions of the cards will be shipped with the vaccine kits sent to hospitals and other distribution centers.

Health care providers will fill out the card with "accurate vaccine information," which includes written reminder of the patient's appointment for a second dose.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says providers should urge patients with smartphones to take a picture of the card in case it gets lost.

"I hope the CDC has something else planned, but I don't know of anything other than the index card," Mark Fendrick, a medical school professor at the University of Michigan, was quoted in a report.