The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data that showed the Omicron coronavirus variant caused more hospitalizations across the United States but with the upside of shorter stays.
The health agency revealed a new graph that showed the difference of the current wave caused by the highly transmissible variant compared to previous coronavirus outbreaks. The Omicron variant pushed the daily death toll in the country to nearly 2,000. The number is believed to be lower than at other points in the pandemic.
Omicron Variant's Effects
The figures released by the CDC showed that the United States observed seven-day averages of more than 2,000 deaths in mid-April of 2020. Additionally, the country recorded an average of 3,400 deaths throughout much of the 2020-2021 winter season.
The CDC's data also showed that while the Omicron variant caused relatively fewer deaths than previous times throughout the pandemic, the number of people sent to hospitals and emergency departments has hit record-highs. The situation has caused hospitals and healthcare systems to feel the strain of increased admissions amid employee and ICU bed shortages, Business Insider reported.
However, federal health officials released a report on Tuesday that suggested the Omicron variant caused less severe illness in hospitalized patients compared to previous outbreaks. Researchers from the CDC said that people infected with the new variant and who were sent to the hospital had shorter stays compared to people infected with other strains of the virus.
The percentage of hospitalized patients with severe illness is lower compared to previous pandemic waves despite the Omicron variant causing record infections and hospitalizations. The lower disease severity is partly the result of immune protection from higher vaccination rates among people aged five and older, the use of booster shots, previous infection and subsequent recovery, and the believed lower virulence of the new variant.
Fight Against the Pandemic
However, the pattern continues to spread from person to person at an alarming speed. The situation has caused a significant number of hospitalizations and deaths throughout the United States, The Washington Post reported.
Additionally, the situation comes as New York State's indoor mask mandate will remain in place after an appeals court judge temporarily blocked a lower-court ruling on Tuesday. The ruling from a day before abruptly struck down the rule and created confusion among schools and businesses in the region.
The decision released on Tuesday came after a ruling given out on Monday by Justice Thomas Rademaker from Nassau County's State Supreme Court said the rule requiring masks violated the State Constitution. Rademaker's ruling nullified part of the rule that Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed last month when a surge in COVID-19 cases was driven by the Omicron variant.
Hochul vowed to fight Rademaker's decision with the help of State Attorney General Letitia James by filing a motion to stay the ruling in an attempt to put it on hold while the state filed a formal appeal. Justice Robert J. Mille on Tuesday afternoon sided with the state and granted the stay, the New York Times reported.
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