A soldier transports a affected person at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts on December 30, 2021.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden on Thursday will announce the deployment of six teams of military medical personnel to overwhelmed hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan and New Mexico, a White House official mentioned.
The deployments come as hospitals grapple with staffing shortages as nurses and different medical personnel name out sick from omicron amid a surge of sufferers contaminated with the extremely contagious variant.
Covid-19 hospitalizations are larger than final winter’s peak, earlier than the widespread distribution of vaccines. More than 152,000 folks in the U.S. had been hospitalized with Covid as of Wednesday, up 18% over the past week, in accordance to knowledge tracked by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. reported nearly 900,000 new infections on Wednesday, bringing the seven-day common to greater than 786,000 new circumstances per day — a pandemic document and a 37% enhance over the earlier week, in accordance to a CNBC evaluation of knowledge compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
An common of greater than 1,000 hospitals nationwide are presently reporting vital staffing shortages, in accordance to HHS knowledge. However, it is possible an undercount as a result of many hospitals weren’t reporting their standing as of Wednesday.
Dr. Gillian Schmitz, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, mentioned the pressure on front-line staff is worse now than at some other level in the pandemic.
“Many locations throughout the nation are getting to the purpose the place even their backup workers are getting sick,” Schmitz instructed CNBC Wednesday. “Pretty a lot the entire nation proper now could be feeling this surge of circumstances that’s impacting staffing.”
Biden introduced his plan to deploy 1,000 military medical personnel to assist hospitals in December as omicron was quickly overtaking the delta variant. The Federal Emergency Management Agency can be offering extra hospital bends and sending ambulances and EMS teams to assist transport sufferers.
“It’s not sufficient,” Schmitz instructed CNBC Wednesday. “I do know everyone seems to be making an attempt to assist as finest we are able to, however there are restricted assets even inside our nationwide construction.”
Epidemiologists have warned that the sheer magnitude of omicron infections nonetheless threatens to overwhelm hospitals with sufferers, even when the variant is usually much less extreme than delta.
Infectious illness consultants, in a examine this week, discovered that omicron sufferers at Kaiser Permanente Southern California had been 74% much less possible to want intensive care and 91% much less possible to die from the virus in contrast to individuals who caught the delta variant. None of the omicron sufferers required mechanical air flow, in accordance to the examine.
The total threat of hospitalizations was additionally 52% decrease for omicron sufferers in contrast with individuals who had delta, in accordance to the examine. Hospital stays for omicron sufferers had been additionally about three days shorter than than their delta counterparts.
Kaiser Permanente Southern California supplies care to greater than 4.7 million folks. The examine, which has not been peer reviewed but, analyzed greater than 52,000 omicron circumstances and almost 17,000 delta circumstances.
Doctors and nurses have warned about staffing shortages for months. The American Nurses Association in September referred to as on the Biden administration to declare the nursing scarcity a nationwide disaster.
“The nation’s well being care supply methods are overwhelmed, and nurses are drained and annoyed as this persistent pandemic rages on with no finish in sight,” ANA President Ernest Grant mentioned on the time. “Nurses alone can not clear up this longstanding situation and it isn’t our burden to carry,” Grant mentioned.
Acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock instructed lawmakers on Tuesday the U.S. should guarantee hospitals and different essential services do not break down as folks name out sick.
“It’s exhausting to course of what’s truly taking place proper now, which is most individuals are going to get Covid,” Woodcock testified earlier than the Senate well being committee on Tuesday. “What we’d like to do is ensure that the hospitals can nonetheless operate, transportation, different essential services aren’t disrupted whereas this occurs.”