As the Omicron variant is spreading the US and around the world as “wildfire” its reportedly causing shortages in manpower, due to their sickness and required isolation, resulting in widespread disruption of services, especially hitting hospitals hard.

CNN Health reports, citing data from the US Department of Health and Human Services, that about 24% of hospitals are reporting a “critical staffing shortage.”

We’re seeing two sets of things happening: A lot of vaccinated people getting infected. We’re doing fine. Largely avoiding getting particularly sick, avoiding the hospital; a lot of unvaccinated people and high-risk people who have not gotten boosted and they’re really filling up the hospitals, and so our hospital systems are under a lot of stress.

– Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health (source: CNN Health)

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reported saying on Fox News that ‘while Omicron appears to be milder at the individual level, a large volume of cases could cause death rates to rise’.

In some hospitals, up to 40% of patients with Covid-19 are coming in not because they’re sick with Covid, but because they’re coming in with something else and have had Covid or the Omicron variant detected.

– Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of CDC (source: CNN Health)

In Minnesota, staff shortages in nursing homes is rippling through communities, reports MPR News.

Nathan Johnson, CEO of PioneerCare in Fergus Falls, told MPR News “I’m getting calls now from people who are literally begging for Pioneer to find a way to admit their loved one.”

“And so there’s a lot of family caregivers right now who are having to take care of their loved ones. And in many cases, you know, they are underprepared or just ill-equipped to do so,” added Johnson.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci is reportedly said that because Omicron’s extraordinary transmission efficiency, it’s going to find everybody even those who are vaccinated and boosted.

Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody. Those who have been vaccinated … and boosted would get exposed. Some, maybe a lot of them, will get infected but will very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well in the sense of not having hospitalization and death.

– Dr. Anthony Fauci (source: CNN Health)

US Armies and National Guards are being deployed in states to combat surging Omicron cases, reports CNN.

For examples, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has reportedly mobilized the National Guard to provide support, with 445 members sent to 30 health care facilities.

“Omicron continues to burn through the commonwealth, growing at levels we have never seen before. Omicron is significantly more contagious than even the Delta variant. If it spreads at the rate we are seeing, it is certainly going to fill up our hospitals and Kentucky is down to 134 adult ICU beds available”, told Gov. Beshear.

It’s not only the hospitals, but schools and industries are also facing the Omicron surge issues, CNN reports.