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| A medical worker about to enter a negative pressure room at a US hospital. (Photo by= Getty Images) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] Even as the Omicron variant sweeps around the world, public health officials have noted that, in most cases, the number of Covid patients in hospitals remains significantly lower than during previous pandemic surges, BBC reported. That's not the case in the US, however, where the number of patients with the coronavirus currently in hospital has reached record numbers. According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, 145,982 people were in hospital with the virus on 11 January, surpassing a previous record set in January 2021.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden was expected to announce plans to deploy military medical personnel to help in six of the states hardest hit by the influx of patients. Similarly, hospitals in large parts of neighbouring Canada have also seen surges, with Quebec reporting a pandemic high last weekend.
Hospitals around the US have reported that the spike in infected patients has exacerbated pressure on facilities already strained by the pandemic. Dr Juan Reyes, the director of hospital medicine at George Washington University in Washington DC - which is among the US cities with the highest per capita hospital admissions rate - said that this surge "has been a lot more challenging" than previous ones.
