State leaders urged to declare crisis as Covid hospitalizations rise
With hospitalizations from Covid rising across the state, the Washington State Medical Association is calling on state leaders to declare a crisis and take immediate action to help staff emergency departments and hospitals statewide.
By the end of the month, experts think the state will see upwards of 40,000 new Covid cases a day as the Omicron variant shatters previous record highs for transmission in Washington.
Though the variant often causes less severe illness than previous ones, the high volume of transmission, coupled with health care workers having to call out sick with Covid, is going to put a strain on hospitals that has yet to be seen during the pandemic, administrators from across the state told reporters Thursday.
"This is largest number of Covid-19 inpatients we've had in the entire two years and we're going to see this exact same trend in every single hospital in our state," Dr. John Lynch, an infectious disease physician with UW Medicine said during a call with reporters. "If they haven't gotten there already, they're going to be there in days to weeks."
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/01/06/crisis-standards-of-care.html
