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In the United States, where the spread of Omicron continues to explode, the average daily number of confirmed cases has exceeded 700,000. As the number of inpatients skyrocketed, many hospitals have stopped non-emergency surgeries, and to solve the shortage of medical personnel, even if medical personnel are infected with Corona, there is a guideline that they can return to the hospital if they do not have symptoms.
Correspondent Yunsu Kim from Washington.
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Over the past week, an average of 700,000 new infections per day in the United States, and the cumulative number of patients approaching 60 million.
The hospital is again in a state of emergency as the number of hospitalized patients has increased significantly due to the explosive spread of Omicron.
The number of hospitalizations across the United States surpassed 130,000 and was approaching the worst in January last year, when 140,000 were admitted.
New York State and others have ordered to suspend non-essential surgeries for the next two weeks.
[Steven Staitz/US University of Kansas Hospital: Transition from normal operation to emergency operation. Emergency operation puts patients in an abnormal situation and means that surgery has to be canceled.]
The problem is that, as Omicron infections continue to occur in hospitals, the shortage of medical personnel is getting worse and worse.
The National Guard is being sent to medical sites one after another to fill the workforce, and the state of California has issued guidelines that even medical personnel infected with Corona can return to the hospital immediately if they do not show symptoms.
[Dennis Anderson/Doctor: The thought that we can infect COVID-19 to the patients we care for every day is terrifying.]
Children and adolescent patients are also at an all-time high, causing controversy across the United States over whether face-to-face classes will be suspended again. there is.