Greater than 40 Florida hospitals face workers shortages because the Omicron variant continues to gasoline infections and hospitalizations.

Regardless of medical doctors and nurses being totally vaccinated, a rising variety of medical workers continues to check constructive with the COVID-19 virus. Hospital teams say there are rising issues medical professionals will have to be remoted and off obligation due to the elevated positivity charge.

Staffing shortages at Florida hospitals even pressured the shutdown of a division at Holy Cross Well being in Broward County when the hospital elected to shut their maternity ward earlier within the week, putting the Labor and Supply unit on diversion standing. The hospital did maintain its NICU and postpartum models open.

Moreover, the Cleveland Clinic introduced it might postpone all non-urgent surgical procedures that require an in a single day keep at its Florida hospitals by means of Jan. 21 to assist make room for sufferers and alleviate strain on the medical crew.

This present case surge is the best in Florida for the reason that 2021 late-summer months when there have been greater than 1,550 deaths in a single day.

However regardless of workers shortages and the unfold of the Omicron variant, deaths within the state have continued to say no to their lowest ranges since March 2020.

In keeping with Justin Senior, the CEO of Florida Security Web Hospital Alliance, which represents a few of Florida's largest hospitals, extra medical professionals are testing constructive for the Omicron variant, inflicting a workers scarcity due to mandatory isolation.

Senior additionally stated it's troublesome to handle the roughly 50 p.c of sufferers who first arrived at a hospital with different illnesses or for various procedures however later take a look at constructive for the COVID-19 virus.

"They're actually labor-intensive. To stop additional infections, they are usually an immense quantity of labor that could be very tedious," Senior stated.

Florida Staff Shortage COVID
Florida hospitals face staffing scarcity because the Omicron variant continues to unfold. On this photograph, a medical employee tends to a affected person who has Covid-19 in a damaging strain room within the ICU ward at UMass Memorial Medical Middle in Worcester, Massachusetts on January 4, 2022. Joseph Prezioso/Getty Pictures

The Omicron variant spreads much more rapidly than different coronavirus strains. The variant additionally extra simply infects those that have been vaccinated or had beforehand been contaminated by prior variations of the virus. Nevertheless, early research present omicron is much less prone to trigger extreme sickness than the earlier delta variant, and the vaccination and a booster nonetheless provide sturdy safety from severe sickness, hospitalization and demise.

In keeping with federal authorities information, hospitalizations rose from about 5,000 COVID sufferers to about 8,500 over the previous week. CDC information exhibits that instances within the state have continued to rise, reaching a median of 56,759 day by day instances on Thursday.

Florida's seven-day demise common is at present at its lowest degree since March 2020, with 4 deaths per day.

The Related Press contributed to this report.