HYANNIS — Cape Cod Healthcare officials canceled elective surgeries at Cape Cod Hospital on Thursday and Friday as a rising number of COVID-19 cases helped fill every patient bed in the Hyannis hospital.

“The fact of the matter is, we’re exceptionally busy,” said Michael Lauf, Cape Cod Healthcare president and CEO, on Thursday.

“Our hospitals are running above capacity. It’s a very stressful time for every single person associated with this system,” he said.

Lauf said Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital were caring for 50 people with COVID-19.

“Some are incidental and some are primary diagnosis,” he said.

The hospitals are also full with sicker patients who had delayed care during the pandemic for conditions such as diabetes and cardiac problems, Lauf said.

On Thursday, every bed on the Cape Cod Hospital campus was full, he said. The hospital had admitted 20 more patients than what its license calls for and was housing them in spaces set aside for surges in patient numbers, Lauf said.

Falmouth Hospital was running at about 85% capacity, he said.

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A staffing shortage that has cost Massachusetts hospitals the use of 500 beds led the state Department of Public Health to release guidance to hospitals to reduce non-essential, elective surgeries and procedures by 30%.

On Dec. 10, the DPH updated that guidance calling for hospitals to reduce the non-essential, elective procedures by 50% starting this past Wednesday.

But with the inpatient census so high, Lauf said Cape Cod Healthcare decided to cancel all elective surgeries Thursday and Friday.

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Sicker patients who are taking longer to discharge are playing into a backup in the emergency departments, Lauf said. The Cape Cod Hospital emergency department is admitting 50 new patients a day and the one at Falmouth Hospital is admitting more than 20 new patients daily, he said.

Dr. William Agel, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Cape Cod Healthcare, said the canceled surgeries are mainly orthopedic, including surgeries for joint, hip and knee replacements. Some spinal and urological procedures that are more elective in nature were also canceled.

Lauf said Cape Cod Healthcare officials will meet Saturday to go over patients' census and discharge figures to determine when elective procedures can resume.

“People need it. People are in pain,” he said.

The majority of people in the Cape hospitals do not have COVID-19 but are being treated for heart disease, cancer and other health issues, Agel said.

Length of stay is up and it’s harder to get patients discharged to skilled nursing environments, Lauf said.

Hospitals across the state also have seen a surge in behavioral health patients. Steve Walsh, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, said Massachusetts hospitals reported 620 behavioral health patients boarding in emergency departments, of whom 182 were children.

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“We’re just layering in on top of" other patients with COVID-19 patients, Agel said.

Only one COVID-19 patient was sick enough to be on a ventilator Thursday, Lauf said.

Agel said COVID-19 patients are falling into one of two groups. They include older, vaccinated patients with other health issues, such as diabetes. Those breakthrough patients typically get oxygen and go home, Agel said.

“There is a younger cohort that is not vaccinated, and they are getting significantly ill,” Agel said.

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But while the number of patients with COVID-19 is inching up to Cape Cod Healthcare’s all-time high of 70 in January, this time is different, Agel said.

The vaccines means most patients are not as sick as earlier this year.

“It shows you the efficacy of the vaccine and the booster,” Lauf said.

The Baker-Polito administration said on its website that the need for hospitals to reduce non-essential procedures is due to “a critical staffing shortage which has contributed to the loss of approximately 500 medical/surgical and ICU hospital beds” in Massachusetts.

“Hospitals are also seeing a high level of patients, mostly due to non-COVID-related reasons,” the administration said.

But health officials say the pandemic has contributed to the staffing shortage.

“After two years of fighting this virus, our caregivers are simply exhausted,” Steve Walsh, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association said during a hearing on the status of COVID-19 held Thursday by the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Health at the Statehouse.

“The first conversation you hear every day is about staffing,” Walsh said.

The cancellation of elective surgeries Thursday and Friday at Cape Cod Hospital did not extend to other areas of healthcare.

Lauf said the Hyannis hospital is still admitting emergency patients and trauma patients. He also said the healthcare organization’s urgent care centers are working to capacity.

Hospital visitation, which was curtailed earlier in the pandemic, is continuing for now, Lauf said.

“We want visitors here if visitors will keep their masks on,” he said.