Hospitals across Idaho may begin prioritizing and rationing limited resources, the state’s health department said, as a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations overwhelms healthcare systems.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said Thursday it activated its crisis standards of care statewide after doing so for north Idaho last week. The protocol is a last-resort method of rationing medical care when hospitals and healthcare systems are out of resources, including staff, during a disaster, like a pandemic.