The daily COVID-19 case rate exceeds the Delta surge in the United States.

A highly contagious variant of Omicron coronavirus is Spreads throughout the United States.. The proportion of daily COVID-19 cases detected during this holiday season is higher than those fueled by the delta mutation during the summer.

Hospitalization with COVID-19 remains relatively low from its peak earlier this year, but the situation could be exacerbated as tens of millions of Americans remain unvaccinated. Higher risk For complications and death.

Health and government officials say that Omicron variants Overwhelm hospitals and healthcare professionals..

Professor William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center told CNN Poppy Harlow on Friday.

Over 69,000 Americans were hospitalized on Christmas Eve with COVID-19. According to the data From the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Up about 2% from last week, this figure remains below the peak of hospitalizations during delta surges, half the record high since January.

However, experts point out that hospitalizations tend to lag over time as some illnesses worsen, researchers still say. Working to decide Whether Omicron is unlikely to cause a serious illness.

According to HHS data, COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased by at least 10% in 12 states over the past week.

According to Johns Hopkins University, this is due to a 48% increase in Covid-19 cases since last week, with an average of 182,682 new daily cases in the United States.

The number of cases beyond the summer surge is a cool sign of the rapid spread of Omicron. Most popular This week’s variant in the United States.

And the lack of COVID-19 testing Long line In many metropolitan areas before Christmas, some pockets in the country are reporting a surge.

Public health data show that cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County nearly tripled last week, reaching 9,998 new cases for approximately 10 million residents. However, hospitalization is stable.

The state of New York broke its own daily record of COVID-19 cases on Friday, reporting 44,431 new cases. This is a 14 percent increase from Thursday.

“This is not a surprise,” said New York Governor Kathy Hokul. “This is a very contagious variant.”

Hospitalizations in the state are also increasing, but the proportion is low. According to Friday’s data, 4,744 New Yorkers are being treated for COVID-19 in hospitals, up 4.6% from Thursday.

Thousands of Christmas day flights canceled

The epidemic of Omicron variants can also partially blame the cancellation of thousands of flights around the world. Christmas holidays Millions of Americans Gather with family and friends..

According to the tracking website, as of 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time on Christmas, Delta canceled about 300 flights on Saturday and United Airlines canceled about 240 flights. FlightAware..

Although the weather may have prompted the cancellation, Delta and United admit that they are struggling to staff due to the Omicron variant.

“We expect more than 150 cancellations per day, both Saturday and Sunday,” Delta said. Said in a statement Friday.

According to FlightAware, JetBlue Airways on Christmas morning also canceled 120 flights, accounting for 12% of scheduled trips.

Shortening the quarantine period

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday quarantine period For healthcare professionals who test positive for COVID-19. As long as they are asymptomatic and later the test is negative, the time frame to leave can be shortened from 10 days to 7 days.

“If there is a shortage of personnel, the isolation time can be further shortened,” the CDC said in a statement, noting that Omicron’s surge in COVID-19.

Authorities also recommended that healthcare workers do not need to be quarantined “after high-risk exposure” to the virus if they are vaccinated and boosted.

Quarantine refers to those who have been infected but have not been diagnosed with an infectious disease, and quarantine refers to those who test positive.

Meanwhile, New York State launched a broader isolation policy on Friday. This allows fully vaccinated key workers who test positive for COVID-19 to return to work after 5 days if they are asymptomatic and have no fever for 72 hours. Said.

Hochul did not clearly define who would be considered an essential worker, but explained that it included people working in health care, hygiene, grocery stores, pharmacies, and restaurants.

Dr. Lina Wen, CNN’s medical analyst, said on Friday that she would support the new quarantine rules.

“I think it’s very important for us to do this, because at this point we are facing a potential collapse of our critical infrastructure,” Wen said. “This is why maintaining hospital function is so important to healthcare professionals, as well as transportation and grocery stores entering this holiday season. In many other important workplaces, In reality it can be very scarce. Workers. “

Preventable hospitalization costs billions of dollars, estimated results

While hospitals and health authorities are preparing for Omicron, additional research is being conducted to analyze the early stages of the pandemic.

During the Delta Serge that began in the summer, there were approximately 690,000 preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States, costing approximately $ 14 billion. according to New quote from Kaiser Family Foundation.

According to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 1.2 million hospitalizations were recorded between June and November 2021.

For their analysis, KFF used data from the CDC to estimate that 85 percent of those hospitalizations were unvaccinated.

Hospitalizations where COVID-19 was not the main cause, and hospitalizations that could not be prevented by the vaccine because they were 100% ineffective, were excluded.

Using various studies, KFF estimated an average hospitalization cost of approximately US $ 20,000 and a total preventable COVID-19 hospitalization of US $ 13.8 billion over a six-month period.

“The monetary cost of treating unvaccinated people with COVID-19 is not only for patients, but also for taxpayer-funded public programs and private insurance premiums paid by workers, businesses and individual purchasers. The society will bear the burden more widely, “the analyst wrote.

“Of course, the development and distribution of vaccines was socially costly, but vaccines save the cost of the US medical system in the long run by preventing costly hospitalizations.”