Registered nurse travel demand has increased by 44% over the last 30 days as of today amid the surge in Covid-19, according to data collected by healthcare staffing firm Aya Healthcare that represents major health systems across the US.

There were 31,540 open needs for travel nurses as of today, and 48% of current open travel nurse positions are “crisis” positions. Crisis jobs are those requested in response to urgent client situations and usually include a rapid start date, variable contract length, increased bill rate, modified onboarding requirements and often an increased number of hours per week.

On a year-over-year basis, Aya’s data shows that open travel nurse jobs were up 217% today when compared with the same day last year.

The five states with the highest nursing demand on Nov. 30 were California, Texas, Florida, New York and Minnesota.