As the White House struggles to control the increasing spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in the US, New York has reported an alarming increase in hospitalisation of children.
New York State Department of Health has issued a warning regarding “an upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with COVID-19”.
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The US has been observing a rapid increase in Covid cases due to the new variant, Omicron, which is dubbed to be one of the most transmissible variants of coronavirus. The country has been recording nearly 190,000 new infections on a daily basis in the past week, as per the data provided by Johns Hopkins University.
Omicron variant’s arrival coincided with the popular holiday season during which families travelled to meet friends and family, and Christmas parties were help.
Due to the increased travel and social interactions in the country, and the new variant, New York City “identified four-fold increases in COVID-19 hospital admissions for children 18 and under beginning the week of December 5 through the current week”.
The holiday season also increased the demand for Covid tests leading to a short supply. US pandemic expert and White House advisor, Anthony Fauci, also acknowledged the shortage of Covid tests. “One of the problems is that that’s not going to be totally available to everyone until we get to January and there are still some issues now of people having trouble getting tested,” Fauci told ABC News. “But we’re addressing the testing problem.”
This increase has coincided with the shortage in the supply of American blood banks. Some American organisations have claimed that the blood banks have very limited supply and it is constantly decreasing. “We simply like to keep three days of inventory,” Chris Hrouda, president of biomedical services at the American Red Cross, said in a local interview. “We’re struggling to keep one day.”
