Health Experts warned about a continuous increase in COVID-19 & Child Hospitalizations

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Health officials in the US have warned that COVID-19 cases are continuously increasing following the spike. The Omicron variant has prompted a wave of disruptions across the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the average daily number of new cases has crossed 176,000 and marked the highest in nearly a year. Moreover, the recent surge is badly affecting everything from pediatric hospitalizations to college bowl games. The officials in the New York State said the state is now dealing with the worst coronavirus outbreak on record and pediatric hospitalizations expanded since early December. So, most schools are also making changes according to the situation. Students at some major colleges and universities such as Columbia, Yale, and the University of California, Los Angeles are looking to start next semester virtually.

There are other colleges and universities including the University of Maryland and Northeastern considering resuming in-person classes in January but they also recommend or mandate booster shots. However, the virus is even upending college football. Point to be noted that the University of Miami withdrew from Friday’s Sun Bowl due to an outbreak on the team, while 2 bowls scheduled for this week were canceled due to team withdrawals. The surge came as testing remains a major challenge across the United States. Americans are looking for a COVID-19 test over the Christmas weekend and they spent hours waiting in lines but most of them were unable to get tested. However, COVID-19 cases among airline staff, pilots, and crew led to a series of last-minute flight changes from Friday to Sunday, including more than 3,000 flight cancellations.

Dr. Anthony Fauci also said Americans must not let their guards down, while Omicron may cause less severe illness. He said, “Given the sharp volume of a number of cases that you see now, every day, it goes up and up. The last weekly average was about 150,000, and it likely will go much higher. So, we have to be careful that we don’t get complacent about that because it might still lead to a massive number of hospitalizations in the United States”. Fauci also admitted that it needed a boost and those enhancements may not come until January when the Biden administration plans to send up to 500 million at-home tests to anyone who wants one. Moreover, he also defended the US COVID-19 testing record but acknowledged that he is frustrated with the limited supply of tests during the surge caused by the Omicron variant.