The U.S. hit a new record high for infections in a single day on Monday, with 1,082,549 new cases recorded. Hospitalizations are also on the rise, but not at the same rate.
Still, the number of hospitalizations is noteworthy.with COVID-19, and 26% of ICU beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Only two other times during the pandemic have hospitalizations surpassed 100,000 in the U.S. The first time was a year ago — when hospitalizations exceeded 120,000. And the second time was this past summer, when the delta variant hit. And Johns Hopkins counted 1,688 new deaths on Monday, down from a record 4,442 last January — before COVID-19 vaccines were widely available.NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff explained that the perceived lesser severity of omicron — compared with delta — might actually be because it's infecting a large number of vaccinated people, who are less likely to get really sick .
She spoke with Dr. Roby Bhattacharyya, an infectious disease doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, who cited dataDr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, toldon Sunday that the country is seeing"almost a vertical increase" in cases and that even a relatively lower rate of hospitalizations could strain already overwhelmed hospitals.
"We have got to be careful about that, because, even if you have a less of a percentage of severity, when you have multi-multi-multi-fold more people getting infected, the net amount is you're still going to get a lot of people that are going to be needing hospitalization," Fauci explained."And that's the reason why we're concerned about stressing and straining the hospital system.
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