Data shows the United States has reached another grim milestone in this pandemic: about 1 in 500 U.S. residents have died from COVID-19.

At the beginning of August, Washoe County saw 354 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, now that number is more than four times higher, at 1,621 cases per 100,000.

"Even though we are doing dramatically more testing than we have been, and there's a high demand for testing, our test positivity is increasing," said Washoe County Health District Officer, Kevin Dick. "And that tells us we have a lot of COVID cases happening in our community."

The Nevada Hospital Association is asking the community to do their part in preventing hospitals from overcrowding. As of Tuesday, more than 250 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Washoe County and Carson City. The overwhelming majority of those patients are unvaccinated individuals.

"Capacity is stretched very thin," said Dick. "Emergency departments are overloaded, emergency departments have patients waiting for a bed to free up and become available to be admitted in the hospital."

Dick says what's creating this bottle neck is staffing shortages, so even though hospitals may have rooms and beds available, they are running short on people who can provide medical care to patients.

The NHA is asking the public to get vaccinated, wear a mask, avoid a hospital emergency room for COVID-19 testing, and to try to use urgent care centers for anything that's not an emergency.