U.S. coronavirus hospitalizations slow, with the Northeast showing a steep decline

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/26/us-coronavirus-hospitalizations-omicron/



The winter surge of coronavirus hospitalizations that reached all-time highs in the United States is showing signs of slowing, reflecting sharp declines in states of the Northeast that were the first to be battered by the highly transmissible omicron variant.

But in some corners of the nation, hospitals continue to reel from waves of omicron infections, creating chaos as droves of patients seek care during an already busy season, and front-line workers head to the sidelines in greater numbers than at any point in the pandemic. Some hospitals are finding valuable medical supplies harder to come by, even as the days of widespread shortages of personal protective equipment have passed.

On Wednesday, U.S. hospitals reported treating about 150,000 coronavirus patients, down from a record 160,000 last week. Per capita admissions are starting to decline sharply in the Northeast, to about 50 per 100,000 residents, on par with the South, where hospitalizations are leveling off. Hospitalizations are also falling in the Midwest but rising in the West.

Rick Pollack, president and chief executive of the American Hospital Association, cautioned against declaring victory based on downturns in hospitalizations in parts of the country.

“That’s like going from a crisis to a serious emergency,” Pollack said during a briefing with reporters Tuesday. “It’s not exactly a good situation — hardly out of the woods.”

Deaths also tend to lag hospitalizations, and they continue to rise, averaging more than 2,000 a day.

Graph at link shows it decreasing in Midwest too but still increasing in South and West. Hospital staff shortages are worst out west.