As United States Hospitals are already tensed by Delta variant, patients infected with coronavirus more contagious variant omicron would be a threat to the nation. Anthony S. Fauci, the infectious disease expert, points out the increase in hospitalization to track the variant’s impact.
As of Monday, the United States is witnessing more than 400,000 cases every day on average which is double the previous week’s rate. It is expected to hit a million cases per day as reported in the Washington Post.
Hospitalization has also risen to 33% almost with 488,000 omicron patients, while the deaths have dropped to 4% with an average of 1,249 deaths per day.
Fauci spoke to ABC this Sunday for “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” ” interview that “the real bottom line that you want to be concerned about is: Are we getting protected by the vaccines from severe disease leading to hospitalization?”
It’s still unclear for the authorities to figure out the exact number of patients affected by the omicron variant other than Delta, which the scientists believed is more lethal.
According to the data shared by CDC on Dec 25, omicron is the reason behind 58% of the new coronavirus cases where Delta variants affected over 41% of the new cases.
Experts have warned that the rise in coronavirus cases is due to the unvaccinated individuals, as the ones who are boosted and vaccinated will have better protection against the virus.
Fauci also warned the dangers of the variant in the broader term speaking to CNN; “Even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with omicron than it is with delta, there is still the danger that you will have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the health-care system.”
A tweet shared by the Louisiana Department of Health on Sunday that hospitalization in Louisiana has reached 1000 and 76% of the patients hospitalized are not vaccinated or boosted on vaccinated.
“We have got to be careful about that, because, even if you have a less of a percentage of severity, when you have multi-multi-multi-fold more people getting infected, the net amount is you’re still going to get a lot of people that are going to be needing hospitalization,” Dr. Fauci said.
Hospitals in many states are showing emerging signs of strains and staff shortage.
“At the moment, the major concern is the effect of Omicron on hospital staffing in conjunction with fatigue and increasing admissions for Covid-19 as well as other things,” said Julio Figueroa, chief of infectious diseases at the Louisiana State School Health Sciences Center.
