
US coronavirus: It’s not clear yet if Omicron is a milder variant. But its rapid spread is going to overwhelm hospitals, experts say
CNNCNN — The research is still early on the virulence of the Omicron coronavirus variant – but what’s abundantly clear, according to experts, is that it’s poised to spread rapidly across the US and will likely overwhelm a battered US health care system. “Even if is less virulent than earlier strains, if we have a point where we’re seeing a half-million cases a day or more, we are going to swamp our hospitals – even with a relatively low rate of hospitalization,” said CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington School of Medicine & Health Sciences. “And that’s going to present yet another big stressor on the system.” It’s still too soon to assume Omicron will cause milder disease, according to Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. “The problem, of course, is if this is so infectious – and we might see hundreds of thousands of cases every day, maybe even a million cases in a day from Omicron – even if it’s a little less severe, you are going to have a lot of people in the hospital and our hospitals are already really stretched with Delta, especially in the northern part of the country,” Collins said. The aim, the letter said, was to “reduce density on campus by moving much of our learning and work remotely.” In Maryland, Prince George’s County Public Schools will shift to remote learning beginning December 20 through January 18 due to “the stark rise in COVID-19 cases throughout school system,” according to a Friday statement from the school district’s Chief Executive Officer Monica Goldson.
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