Covid 19 case surge is altering daily life

(CNN)The new year is starting with a massive influx of Covid-19 that’s different from any other during this pandemic, doctors say. “We’re seeing a surge in patients again, unprecedented in this pandemic,” said Dr. James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University Hospital. “What’s coming for the rest of the country could be very serious. And they need to be prepared.” Even health care workers are getting sidelined during the rapid rise of the Omicron variant, the most contagious strain of novel coronavirus to hit the US. “Our health system is at a very different place than we were in previous surges,” emergency medicine professor Dr. Esther Choo said. “This strain is so infectious that I think all of us know many, many colleagues who are currently infected or have symptoms and are under quarantine,” said Choo, associate professor at Oregon Health and Science University. “We’ve lost at least 20% of our health care workforce — probably more.” Early studies suggest the Omicron variant may cause less severe disease than the Delta variant, which still makes up a considerable portion of US Covid-19 cases. But because Omicron is much more contagious, the raw number of Covid-19 hospitalizations could get worse, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. “When you have so many, many cases, even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with Omicron than it is with Delta, there’s still the danger that you’re going to have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the health care system,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The Covid-19 case surge is altering daily life across the US. Things will likely get worse, experts warn

And Omicron might be more problematic for young children, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. “It does appear now, based on a lot of experimental evidence that we’ve gotten just in the last two weeks, that this is a milder form of the coronavirus,” Gottlieb told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “It appears to be more of an upper airway disease than a lower airway disease. That’s good for most Americans. The one group that that may be a problem for is very young children — toddlers — who have trouble with upper airway infections,” said Gottlieb, a current board member at Pfizer. “This new strain could have a predilection, again, for the upper airway, which could be a bigger challenge in young kids, because of the way it binds to the airway cells.” For the week ending December 28, an average of 378 children were admitted to hospitals every day with Covid-19, according to CDC data.

“It may be the case in some school districts, where things are so raging right now in terms of Omicron for the next couple of weeks, and it may be prudent to delay things a couple more weeks,” said Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

“It’s going to be a very challenging time,” Hotez said. “People are going to have to be patient.” Across the country, the rapid spread of Omicron variant has impacted businesses, transportation and emergency services. “Omicron is truly everywhere,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine professor at Brown University’s School of Public Health.

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“What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that our economy is going to shut down — not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill.”