The highly contagious Omicron variant is spreading rapidly in the United States and now the vast majority of cases are related to it, as it became dominant in the week before Christmas, the New York Times notes in a relevant report.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was too early to predict the full impact Omicron could have on deaths and illnesses across the country. However, existing data from cities hit by this variant – earlier in time – are beginning to give a clear picture of what the future holds.
In New York, Boston and Chicago – cities with the first cases of Omicron – the deaths followed the cases on a slightly reduced scale than in previous peaks.
Due to the extremely high number of cases, even a proportionately lower number of deaths than the current case curve in the United States could be catastrophic.
In cities that have been hit early, hospitals are seeing more patients test positive for Covid-19 than at any other time last year.
Due to the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant, many of the patients who arrive at the hospitals for other diseases test positive for the coronavirus.
Doctors stressed that patients who have Covid as their main diagnosis are doing better than in the previous waves.
Even so, the number of Covid-19 patients in need of intensive care or oxygen supply is approaching levels not seen since last winter.
A significant number of patients with Covid end up in hospitals, where staff shortages put enormous pressure on health care workers.
Healthcare workers had already quit their jobs in record numbers before the Omicron wave, and now many have contracted the highly contagious variant.
Given these staffing shortages, even a smaller number of patients can overwhelm emergency departments and ICUs.
Once vaccines became available, those who were vaccinated were much less likely to be treated with severe Covid-19 symptoms than those who were not.
The first data from the city of New York show that the gap between vaccinated and unvaccinated in hospitals became even bigger during the first weeks of the growth of Omicron.
Vaccinated patients are more likely to have milder symptoms, and the vast majority of Omicron patients in need of intensive care are unvaccinated or have severe immune system problems.
Unvaccinated elderly people are particularly vulnerable to serious illness from Covid-19. About 12% of people aged 65 and over in the United States are not fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
Many parts of the United States where this percentage is estimated to be higher are places where the rapid growth due to Omicron has not yet begun or is just beginning.
These places include parts of the Midwest as well as rural areas across the country.
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