When Omicron was first detected in South Africa in November 2021, not many people thought that it would spread like wildfire across the world within a few weeks. The situation is so bad in the US that health officials have allowed Covid infected health workers to continue their work as the health system is dealing with a severe shortage of workforce.
Staff Shortage Turn Infected Staff To Take Charge In Hospitals!
The number of cases per day in the US is getting close to one million in a few days. This is an alarming situation, and experts say that we are still far away from the peak of this wave.
In California, health officials announced that if the health workers do not have any symptoms after getting infected, they can continue to work. The situation is similar in Arizona and Rhode Island, where hospitals have allowed infected health workers to continue the job if they have mild symptoms.
In January 2021, the US health system saw a peak load of about 124,000 people in hospital. The situation right now is close to that level, with more than 100,000 people admitted to the hospital due to a covid infection. As many staff members are infected, several hospitals are dealing with a shortage of workforce to handle the large volume of patients.
The situation was slightly different in December 2021 when CDC had issued guidelines that front-line health workers can return to work after a week after getting negative test results. However, hospitals are not forced to allow infected workers to continue the services due to staff shortages.
Dignity Health in Phoenix has already permitted infected staff to return to work if they are not having severe symptoms. Similar guidelines are expected in California hospitals shortly, considering the rapid growth of Omicron. The hospital authorities said that they are taking all the necessary precautions so that they ensure the safety of both patients and health workers in this situation.
In California, the Public Health Department has already asked hospitals to source employees from external agencies to meet the growing demand for health workers. However, the Nurses Association in California has opposed such guidelines and said that it would lead to more infections when infected health workers are allowed to treat patients.
Some hospitals which have not yet reached the critical level of staff shortage are careful about allowing infected workers to return to hospitals. They ask infected health workers to isolate for five days and then return when they have no symptoms. Even nurses are worried about the situation as they feel that this can put patients at high risk in a difficult place. In the hospitals, several patients are not Covid positive, and they are admitted for other surgeries. In that case, there is a high chance of infecting such patients with Covid when front-line health workers are infected with the virus.
Considering the severe shortage of health workers across the country, several hospitals are forced to make this decision. If the Omicron curve continues to go higher in the next few weeks, all hospitals will make similar moves as they consider Omicron milder than Delta and other variants.
Most people do not require critical care when they are vaccinated, and the problem arises only when people have not taken vaccines. This has been a common trend across the country, and patients who are getting infected with Omicron are showing only mild symptoms when they have taken both doses of vaccines. The health authorities are even promoting the booster dose for health workers and other vulnerable people so that they are better prepared to handle this Covid wave.
