Health care providers work on a Covid-19 patient in Dallas, Texas. | Go Nakamura/Getty Images

A new HHS report finds more than 1,000 US hospitals are “critically” short on staff amid a rising third wave of Covid-19 infections.

As confirmed coronavirus cases rise to their highest levels since the pandemic began, hospitals across the country are reporting critical staff shortages. And those shortages may only grow worse in the weeks to come, as thousands of the 1 million Americans diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past week begin to require hospitalization.

According to an NPR analysis of data released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week, more than 1,000 hospitals across the country have been identified as “critically” short on staff as they face a dramatic third wave of Covid-19 infections.

That amounts to about 18 percent