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Essential employees have been forced to call out of work en masse in recent weeks due to positive Omicron infections that have led to staffing shortages for first responders, healthcare workers, supermarket workers, flight crews, and other key professions.
The shortages have led to hundreds of canceled flights, closed restaurants, and short-staffed retail stores, leaving workers frustrated and fatigued after nearly 22 months of dealing with the pandemic on the front lines.,
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), during the week of Saturday, Dec. 25, the Omicron variant represented 59 percent of new cases in the US.
Staffing shortages in hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities throughout the US come as the number of new cases tied to the Omicron variant continues to multiply, leading to additional hospitalizations and further exasperating already stressed healthcare systems.
“You need the healthcare workers,” infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told NPR's Morning Edition this week in regards to the shortages. “And when you have them out for the full 10 days, and you do that over a wide swath of people, you can have a situation where you really do not have enough health care workers.”
The surge of Omicron cases is the latest blow to essential workers, who have been pushed to the brink as the COVID-19 pandemic approaches its third year wreaking havoc across the globe.
Federal health officials said that the number of new cases has led many key operations without a full complement of front-line workers, prompting governments to ease the burden by shortening isolation time or permitting employees to return to work if they remain asymptomatic or are a close contact with someone who tested positive.
Some states have also taken drastic measures, calling in the National Guard members to help fill in the gaps at hospitals and nursing homes, serving meals, transporting patients, and performing other non-clinical work.
Others have proposed hourly hazard pay for some essential employees or enlisting workers from out of state to help fill in the gaps caused by the virus.
President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan includes $350 billion for state and local governments to provide “premium pay” to essential workers as the country combats the shortages, which states have been tasked with distributing.
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