In Omicron Hot Spots, Hospitals Fill Up, but I.C.U.s May Not

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“We’re in truly crushed mode,” said Dr. Gabe Kelen, director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s emergency department.

An intensive care unit in Farmington, N.M., last month. Hospitalized Omicron patients tend to be younger and are more likely to be vaccinated than those with previous variants, which may partially account for the milder illnesses.

In Omicron Hot Spots, Hospitals Fill Up, but I.C.U.s May Not
Covid hospitalizations are surging, but a smaller proportion of cases is severe compared with previous waves. With staff shortages, some hospitals are still in crisis.
nytimes.com
8:00 PM · Jan 4, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/health/covid-omicron-hospitalizations.html

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In hospitals around the country, doctors are taking notice: This wave of Covid seems different from the last one.

Once again, as they face the highly contagious Omicron variant, medical personnel are exhausted and are contracting the virus themselves. And the numbers of patients entering hospitals with the variant are surging to staggering levels, filling up badly needed beds, delaying nonemergency procedures and increasing the risk that vulnerable uninfected patients will catch the virus.

But in Omicron hot spots from New York to Florida to Texas, a smaller proportion of those patients are landing in intensive care units or requiring mechanical ventilation, doctors said. And many — roughly 50 to 65 percent of admissions in some New York hospitals — show up at the hospital for other ailments and then test positive for the virus.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of hospitalizations,” said Dr. Rahul Sharma, emergency physician in chief for NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital. But the severity of the disease looks different from previous waves, he said. “We’re not sending as many patients to the I.C.U., we’re not intubating as many patients, and actually, most of our patients that are coming to the emergency department that do test positive are actually being discharged.”

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