The highly contagious omicron strain has washed away the delta strain in the US, but the rise of the supposedly milder form of Covid-19 has so far done nothing to ease the burden of overburdened hospitals.
The ommicron variant accounts for about 98% of cases, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday. That number is based on data for the week ending January 8, and is a significant increase from just two weeks earlier, when omicron accounted for 71.3% of cases.
Omicron’s increased transmissibility, combined with the immunity some have built up to fight the delta through vaccination and exposure, have made conditions favorable for the “milder” variant, said David Wohl, a professor at the Institute of Global Health and Infectious. Diseases at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. But experts warn that for those who remain unvaccinated or suffer from other health problems, infection from a Covid-19 variant is a major concern. And without intervention, data points to dark days for a health care system already stretched to its limits, they say.
In many parts of the US, the health care system is collapsing “under the weight of Covid patients,” said Neil Sehgal, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. “I started to wonder if this was the week the health care system was going to break.”
The most recent CDC Nowcast data predicts that omicron dominates caseloads in every region of the country. And while infections appear to be peaking in places hit early, like New York City, most cities continue to see infections eclipse past records and hospital admissions skyrocket.
In Maryland, where Sehgal works, some hospitals have moved to crisis standards for care — meaning they’ve halted certain elective surgeries and redeployed staff. Hospitals in several other states, including Colorado and Oregon, have declared similar crises. Sehgal said the Maryland Hospital Association on Tuesday appealed to the public for greater adherence to preventive measures, such as masking, and again pushed for vaccinations.
Some places are restoring safety protocols to try to ease the burden on local hospitals. When cases exploded in Utah last week, Salt Lake County health director Angela Dunn issued a nationwide mask mandate, taking the extra step to demand respirator-type masks such as KN95s, KN90s or KF94s. The province said they would provide the masks free of charge to those who needed them.
Preserving the capacity of the health care system is crucial, Sehgal said.
“If we don’t act now and act decisively, it will be too late,” Sehgal said. “Today’s cases are next week’s hospitalizations.”
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