Massive and mild: Omicron's surge looks different than earlier COVID waves

The Galveston County Daily News, January 8, 2022

Dr. Shawn Nishi, a professor and program director of University of Texas Medical Branch’s pulmonary critical care unit, said all COVID-positive people in the hospital aren’t there because of COVID. About half were incidental diagnosis in people hospitalized for things other than COVID. While hospitalizations from COVID-19 are not as high as during previous surges, more hospital workers are getting sick from the highly contagious strain, Nishi said. “Our division had not really gotten sick until this variant hit,” she said. “It’s just super contagious. We’ve been so careful. But despite our best efforts, we’ve had people in our division going down.”

Massive and mild: Omicron's surge looks different than earlier COVID waves

The Galveston County Daily News, January 8, 2022

Dr. Shawn Nishi, a professor and program director of University of Texas Medical Branch’s pulmonary critical care unit, said all COVID-positive people in the hospital aren’t there because of COVID. About half were incidental diagnosis in people hospitalized for things other than COVID. While hospitalizations from COVID-19 are not as high as during previous surges, more hospital workers are getting sick from the highly contagious strain, Nishi said. “Our division had not really gotten sick until this variant hit,” she said. “It’s just super contagious. We’ve been so careful. But despite our best efforts, we’ve had people in our division going down.”