The U.S. hospital-staffing shortage exacerbated by the latest COVID-19 wave is showing signs of easing, but many West Coast and rural states are still seeing the worst of it, Bloomberg News reported. Over the past seven days, about 16.7% of U.S. hospitals have reported critical staffing shortages, down from a recent peak of 18.7% on Jan. 9, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Fewer facilities are reporting shortages in populous New York, Florida and Illinois. The numbers are still concerning to state leaders, but are at least returning to the levels seen in October and November, before the omicron spike. The omicron variant hit the U.S. in December with a surge in infections that dwarfed all previous waves. Now, the recent decline in cases in many areas has helped ease strain at a time when pandemic burnout, the winter holidays and even conflicts over vaccine mandates have made it hard to staff U.S. hospitals. The average omicron infection has proved to be less severe and deadly than previous variants, thanks to inoculations and the variant itself, but it has produced so many cases that hospitalizations jumped anyway. Many health-care workers caught COVID-19 in their communities and had to miss work.
