January 27, 2022 – According to a report from The Washington Post, coronavirus hospitalizations are showing signs of slowing in the United States. This reflects the sharp decline of hospitalization in the northeastern states that were the first to be hit by the omicron variant.
On Wednesday, hospitals in the U.S. reported treating 150,000 coronavirus patients, down from 160,000 last week. While this is a good sign for hospitals and healthcare workers, health experts are cautioning people to remember it’s still a serious situation.
Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said in a briefing, “That’s like going from a crisis to serious emergency. It’s not exactly a good situation – hardly out of the woods.”
While hospitalization rates have started to fall in the Northeast and the Midwest, they are rising in the West. The Post reports that “about 22 percent of hospitals in the West are reporting critical staff shortages compared with 19 percent in the South and Midwest, and 14 percent in the Northeast. About one third of hospitals in the West and South are anticipating critical shortages in the weeks ahead, compared with about 27 percent in the Midwest and roughly 20 percent in hospitals in the Northeast.”