Omicron rarely causes serious illness, but hospitals face stress

Omicron variants create a new wave of coronavirus infection, despite new research showing that the latest stages of the pandemic are causing less serious illnesses in the California health care system. , It is expected that the next few weeks will face ongoing stress.

Officials say the focus is on protecting hospital operations facing severe staff shortages as workers become infected, but hope the system can withstand Omicron. They continue to encourage people to do everything they can to avoid infection.

Governor Gavin Newsom said at a press conference in Paramount Wednesday that Omicron was “less serious than the previous variants.” The intensive care unit is not as busy with COVID-19 patients as it was a year ago.

However, it is also true that so many people have never been infected with the coronavirus at the same time in a pandemic. And it flooded the emergency room, faced delays in the ambulance dropping people to the hospital, and patients watching scheduled surgery were cancelled.

“Ultimately, there will be a lot of pressure on our healthcare system,” Newsom said.

Kaiser Permanente Southern California has temporarily postponed all scheduled surgery requiring hospitalization after surgery. This move came after many hospital systems throughout California reported that they were forced to postpone at least some scheduled procedures.

And the Los Angeles County Public Health Service has begun to report what authorities have called a “troublesome increase” in deaths from COVID-19. On Wednesday, LA County reported 39 COVID-19 deaths. This is the best daily tally since September 22nd, when the summer delta surge was declining.

Nonetheless, Newsom and others have expressed vigilant optimism that Omicron’s surge may encounter a similarly rapid decline — experienced in other countries where variants arrived earlier. Tendency.

In some parts of the United States, Newsom said, “In the last three to four days, we’re starting to see some cases leveling. It’s going to happen here in California as well.”

“We’re going to get over this — a few more weeks,” he said.

According to computer models, the peak of the Omicron wave may come in late January. Perhaps next week, Dr. Karsten Bibin’s Domingo, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, said. Virus infections can be high in the weeks following the peak, but by the time the Super Bowl is held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on February 13, the situation will be similar to where we were. There is a possibility of becoming. Mid December. “

“I think it makes sense for us to be in a really better place by mid-February,” Bibins-Domingo said.

As more data is collected, it is becoming clear that Omicron is causing a less severe illness than the cousin of Delta, the culprit behind last summer’s wave.

Research According to Dr. Rochelle of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California data released this week are, for example, “severe clinical outcomes in patients infected with the Omicron variant compared to Delta. We noted that the risks were significantly reduced. ” Wallenski.

This study analyzed more than 52,000 Omicron cases and more than 17,000 Delta cases within the Kaiser system from November 30th to January 1st. FoundCompared to Delta, Omicron reduced the risk of symptomatic hospitalization by 53%, the risk of hospitalization in the intensive care unit by 74%, and the risk of death by 91%.

None of the Omicron-infected patients studied required mechanical ventilation. The median length of stay for Omicron patients admitted to the Kaiser study was 1.5 days, compared to 5 days in Delta.

“The data from this study are consistent with those seen by Omicron in other countries, including South Africa and the United Kingdom, and we expect cases to peak in this country, so what can we expect in the coming weeks? It provides some understanding about, “Warrensky said at a briefing on Wednesday.

Authorities say an unusual number of infections are expected in the coming weeks.

The number of new coronavirus cases reported daily in California has skyrocketed, averaging 101,000 cases per day last week, well above last winter’s pandemic record of 46,000 cases per day.

Promisingly, a small percentage of coronavirus-positive patients currently require COVID-19 treatment. data According to Newsam, only 4.5% of people infected with Omicron are hospitalized. According to LA County, 15% to 20% of cases of coronavirus were hospitalized last year.

However, an astonishing number of new coronavirus cases means that there are still many people seeking emergency treatment for coronavirus-related symptoms. On Sunday, there were 12,500 people in the California emergency room seeking treatment for coronavirus-related concerns. On the same day of the previous year, there were 11,500 visits.

The number of people positive for coronavirus has increased rapidly since vacation.On Tuesday, 12,317 such patients Hospitalized throughout the state.. That number has more than tripled since Christmas, the best one-day census since early February.

One model Quote According to Newsome earlier this week, the number of coronavirus patients admitted to California could reach 23,000 by February 2, surpassing the pandemic record of 21,938 recorded on January 6, 2021. ..

Those people are just a part of the puzzle. A total of about 52,400 Californians are currently hospitalized, according to the State Secretary of Health and Welfare, Dr. Mark Garry. This is slightly below the total of 53,000 hospitalizations recorded during the heyday of the pandemic last winter.

This could mean that hospitals will continue to face challenges in the coming weeks.

“Currently, we are focused on ensuring that these hospitals, tired staff, and tired staff get the kind of support they need,” Ghaly said Wednesday. “And for those who are infected with COVID, those who have a car accident in need of acute care, those who have a stroke, diabetes or heart attack, everything we can do as a community needs to be done. . “

Already, hospitals in Los Angeles County are tense to provide medical care, suffering from a much more serious staff shortage than last winter’s coronavirus surge.

In addition, many health care workers who have been burned out by the pandemic have resigned, and many remaining health care workers have tested positive for the virus and have been quarantined at home. And with increasing demand for non-COVID care, medical facilities will be busy this year.

Hundreds of coronavirus-positive health care workers have been quarantined in four public hospitals in LA County, and “it is virtually impossible to maintain the level of care needed to support safe patient care. It’s possible, “says Dr. Health Services Director. Christina Ghaly told the county’s supervisory board this week.

“This number is due to a much higher community infection rate than we’ve ever experienced at any point in the pandemic,” she said. “There are many more viruses in the community, and like everyone else, healthcare workers are infected.”

She added that nurses aren’t the only ones missing. “This affects doctors, respiratory therapists, radiologists, and laboratory staff. It’s the full range of things you need to run a hospital safely.”

An ambulance company contracting with the county to provide emergency transportation via the 911 system “has experienced a serious shortage of staff and is having a hard time answering calls in a timely manner,” Ghaly said. Says. Many employees are ill, but other workers are not vaccinated and “as a result, they are unable to work in accordance with public health orders.”

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