TAMPA, Fla. — So far, omicron has been shown to be less severe than the delta variant.
But, doctors say, since it spreads at a much higher rate, infecting a larger pool of people, that means the number of hospitalizations could still start to rise significantly with this surge.
If you’re unvaccinated, Dr. Doug Ross, chief medical officer at AdventHealth Tampa, says your struggle in the hospital may look a lot like a battle with delta.
“Severity of illness is not that bad if you’re immunized and boosted,” he said. “But, it can be similar to delta variant potentially, in it’s severity, if you’re not."
Ross adds that the infectious nature of omicron is what makes it such a threat.
“Omicron is very infectious, very contagious,” he said. “It’s probably the second most contagious virus we’ve seen in humans. Measles being the first.”
The doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff taking care of patients are at risk of the rapid spread as well.
If too many workers get infected, even with a mild case, and have to sit out for quarantine, we could see a staffing issue similar to what we saw with holiday flight crews.
“It’s concerning,” Ross said. “It’s affecting the workforce. Just look at what happened to the airlines through Christmas weekend, and continues still. About how many people it affects. But, the fact that we don’t have to quarantine for 10 days, but can quarantine for five, safely, is going to help.”
Dr. Ross says, even with a mix of incoming flu and covid patients, they are doing well with the number of respirators available.
He says, right now, they’re waiting to see what happens with this surge while building up an arsenal of new treatments.
“We don’t have the oral antiviral yet, we expect it next week,” Ross said. “And we don’t have several monoclonals that’ll be helpful that have been recently approved by the FDA, so once we get those, we’re going to be excited about them.”