More than 1,000 hospitals across the country are now reporting critical staffing shortages daily, as the Omicron variant spurs crisis levels of absences and threatens essential services across the country.
On Thursday, 1,036 hospitals reported crisis staffing shortfalls, roughly a quarter of the nation's 5,000 hospitals and in line with recent trends, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Though the Omicron variant seems milder than prior COVID-19 strains, its explosive transmission is forcing millions to stay home from work, straining transit, EMS, and police services from New York to Los Angeles, and many places in between.
On Tuesday, Janet Woodcock, the acting head of the Food and Drug Administration, told Congress that the nation should accept that Omicron will infect 'most people', saying the focus should now turn to ensuring critical services can continue through the surge.
'I think it's hard to process what´s actually happening right now, which is: Most people are going to get COVID, all right?' she said. 'What we need to do is make sure the hospitals can still function - transportation, other essential services are not disrupted while this happens.'
Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, answers questions at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing Tuesday
A US Marine veteran is treated by medical workers in a negative pressure room in the Covid-19 ward at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare system Tuesday
At Johns Hopkins five-hospital system in Maryland and Washington DC, there have been recent days when hundreds of workers have called in sick, Dr. Gabe Kelen told CNBC.
'Given how crushed health-care services are right now, to lose nurses for even a five-day period should they have had a mild infection is just a tremendous, tremendous loss,' Kelen said.
'You can just see how astoundingly hampered the operations are at a time when institutions like ours need to ramp up staffing,' he added.
In California, where a staggering 57 percent of hospitals are reporting critical staffing issues, state officials are now telling hospital administrators to order staff back to work immediately if they are positive for COVID but asymptomatic.
'Hospitals have to exhaust all other options before resorting to this temporary tool. Facilities and providers using this tool, should have asymptomatic COVID-19 positive workers interact only with COVID-19 positive patients to the extent possible,' a statement issued by the California Department of Public Health on Saturday read.
The news sparked outrage among advocates for health workers, who argue hospital staff has carried the weight of the pandemic on their shoulders and are now being put at risk, along with their patients.
'Healthcare workers and patients need the protection of clear rules guided by strong science. Allowing employers to bring back workers who may still be infectious is one of the worst ideas I have heard during this pandemic, and that's really saying something,' Bob Schoonover, President of SEIU California told CBS Sacramento.
A woman gets registered for Covid-19 testing at the Times Square Subway stop on January 4, 2022, in New York City
Lori Pond, left, a certified nursing assistant, removes protective gear after stepping out of a patient's room in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, N.H., Jan. 3, 2022
In New York City, employee shortages are causing delays in trash and subway services,
