Omicron spreads across US, but only a few patients in Intensive Care: Reports

The new Omicron variant of coronavirus is spreading explosively in the United States, with hundreds of testing positive daily. Many hospitals expect it to break or equal past hospitalizations of records previous Covid patients.

According to estimates from many facilities around the country, hospitals are prepared for a continued surge in Covid-related bed demand in the coming month.

"Our all-time peak was 451 Covid patients in April of 2020," said Robert Fogerty, who manages capacity management at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. "By next week, I think we'll have blown beyond it."

According to him and other hospital data experts, the good news is that omicron is putting considerably fewer patients in intensive care units than prior waves, especially in areas where vaccination rates are high.

Despite the fact that omicron infections appear to cause milder symptoms than earlier strains, health officials have increased some precautionary measures, such as advising patients to get vaccine boosters and use higher-quality masks, due to the increased demand for beds.

"It's going to be a challenging winter," said Harvard Medical School infectious disease specialist Jacob Lemieux.

In other nations, Omicron has a tendency to burn out quickly, but it's unclear how steep its up-and-down trajectory will be in the United States. According to a forecast from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the demand for hospital resources will peak around mid-February across the country.

The number of Covid patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles is expected to continue to grow through mid-February. At a press conference this week, San Francisco Health Director Grant Colfax stated that he believes "the peak of the surge is upon us," and that he anticipates hospitalizations to be around the same as last winter.

"For the time being, we have adequate hospital beds to handle this demand," Colfax added. "However, another risk is that hospital workers will become sick as a result of community spread and would be forced to return home."