US Coronavirus: Americans may be faced with a different reality in January as Covid-19 sweeps through the nation, experts warn - CNN
The Covid-19 case surge is altering daily life across the US. Things will likely get worse, experts warn
By Christina Maxouris and Alaa Elassar, CNN
Updated 8:15 PM ET, Sat January 1, 2022
(CNN)The US is ringing in the new year amid a Covid-19 surge experts warn is exploding at unprecedented speed and could alter daily life for many Americans during the first month of 2022.
"Omicron is truly everywhere," Dr. Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's School of Public Health, told CNN on Friday night. "What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that our economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill."
The nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections Friday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The high case count is already causing disruptions in the country.
In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is plagued with staffing issues and announced three subway lines -- the B, Z and W -- which service various parts of the boroughs, have been suspended.
"Like everyone in New York, we've been affected by the COVID surge. We're running as much train service as we can with the operators we have available," the MTA wrote on Twitter Thursday.
New York continues to break its own record, adding 85,476 reported Covid-19 cases, according to Saturday's briefing from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hospitalizations jumped to 8,451, up from around 8,000 in the report released Friday, according to the latest data. The state's seven-day positivity rate is 19.79%.
The number of one day case additions has increased 219% since Monday, when the state reported an addition of 26,737 cases.
Healthcare services -- exhausted after several surges of the virus and now stretched thin again by a growing number of Covid-19 patients -- are also already feeling impacts. The University of Maryland Capital Region Health this week joined a growing list of medical centers in the state to activate emergency protocols after a sharp rise in cases fueled staffing shortages and overwhelmed emergency departments.
"The current demand for care is depleting our available resources, including staffing," UM Capital Region Health said in a statement on Friday.
In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday announced the deployment of about 1,250 National Guard members as hospitals struggle with staffing shortages.
On the same day, the mayor of Cincinnati declared a state of emergency due to staffing shortages in the city's fire department following a rise in Covid-19 infections. The mayor's declaration said if the staffing problem goes unaddressed, it would "substantially undermine" first responders' readiness levels.
"Get ready. We have to remember, in the next few weeks, there's going to be an unprecedented number of social disruptions," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor University's National School of Tropical Medicine, told CNN.
Those include flight disruptions as well, he said, because of TSA agent and air crew absences.
Thousands of flights have already been canceled or delayed throughout the holiday season as staff and crew called out sick. On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said an "increased number" of its employees were testing positive for the virus, and "to maintain safety, traffic volume at some facilities could be reduced, which might result in delays during busy periods."
Previous rules of virus are 'out the window'
The latest surge, which has sent case numbers exploding across the globe, is fueled by the Omicron variant, the most contagious coronavirus strain yet, health experts say.
The virus is now "extraordinarily contagious" and previous mitigation measures that used to help now may not be as helpful, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Friday.
"At the beginning of this pandemic... we all were taught, you have a significant exposure if you're within six feet of somebody and you're in contact with them for more than 15 minutes. All these rules are out the window," Reiner said. "This is a hyper-contagious virus.
"
Now, even a quick, transient encounter can lead to an infection, Reiner added, including if someone's mask is loose, or a person quickly pulls their mask down, or an individual enters an elevator in which someone else has just coughed.
"This is how you can contract this virus," Reiner said.
The variant's transmissibility helps explain the staggering number of infections reported globally, including in the US. in the past week, several states have reported new case and hospitalization highs, shattering previous records.
The Covid-19 case surge is altering daily life across the US. Things will likely get worse, experts warn
By Christina Maxouris and Alaa Elassar, CNN
Updated 8:15 PM ET, Sat January 1, 2022
(CNN)The US is ringing in the new year amid a Covid-19 surge experts warn is exploding at unprecedented speed and could alter daily life for many Americans during the first month of 2022.
"Omicron is truly everywhere," Dr. Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's School of Public Health, told CNN on Friday night. "What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that our economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill."
The nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections Friday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The high case count is already causing disruptions in the country.
In New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is plagued with staffing issues and announced three subway lines -- the B, Z and W -- which service various parts of the boroughs, have been suspended.
"Like everyone in New York, we've been affected by the COVID surge. We're running as much train service as we can with the operators we have available," the MTA wrote on Twitter Thursday.
New York continues to break its own record, adding 85,476 reported Covid-19 cases, according to Saturday's briefing from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Hospitalizations jumped to 8,451, up from around 8,000 in the report released Friday, according to the latest data. The state's seven-day positivity rate is 19.79%.
The number of one day case additions has increased 219% since Monday, when the state reported an addition of 26,737 cases.
Healthcare services -- exhausted after several surges of the virus and now stretched thin again by a growing number of Covid-19 patients -- are also already feeling impacts. The University of Maryland Capital Region Health this week joined a growing list of medical centers in the state to activate emergency protocols after a sharp rise in cases fueled staffing shortages and overwhelmed emergency departments.
"The current demand for care is depleting our available resources, including staffing," UM Capital Region Health said in a statement on Friday.
In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday announced the deployment of about 1,250 National Guard members as hospitals struggle with staffing shortages.
On the same day, the mayor of Cincinnati declared a state of emergency due to staffing shortages in the city's fire department following a rise in Covid-19 infections. The mayor's declaration said if the staffing problem goes unaddressed, it would "substantially undermine" first responders' readiness levels.
"Get ready. We have to remember, in the next few weeks, there's going to be an unprecedented number of social disruptions," Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor University's National School of Tropical Medicine, told CNN.
Those include flight disruptions as well, he said, because of TSA agent and air crew absences.
Thousands of flights have already been canceled or delayed throughout the holiday season as staff and crew called out sick. On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said an "increased number" of its employees were testing positive for the virus, and "to maintain safety, traffic volume at some facilities could be reduced, which might result in delays during busy periods."
Previous rules of virus are 'out the window'
The latest surge, which has sent case numbers exploding across the globe, is fueled by the Omicron variant, the most contagious coronavirus strain yet, health experts say.
The virus is now "extraordinarily contagious" and previous mitigation measures that used to help now may not be as helpful, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Friday.
"At the beginning of this pandemic... we all were taught, you have a significant exposure if you're within six feet of somebody and you're in contact with them for more than 15 minutes. All these rules are out the window," Reiner said. "This is a hyper-contagious virus.
"
Now, even a quick, transient encounter can lead to an infection, Reiner added, including if someone's mask is loose, or a person quickly pulls their mask down, or an individual enters an elevator in which someone else has just coughed.
"This is how you can contract this virus," Reiner said.
The variant's transmissibility helps explain the staggering number of infections reported globally, including in the US. in the past week, several states have reported new case and hospitalization highs, shattering previous records.
