A wave of COVID-19 hospitalizations is pushing health care systems in Washington state “closer than they’ve ever been” to a crisis point, hospital leaders, doctors and public health officials said Thursday.
The effects of the omicron variant’s rapid surge across the state were coming into focus this week as the hospital leaders and health officials detailed trends of severe COVID-19 cases, which had been in decline since the peak of the delta variant last summer.
“This is a numbers game,” Riedo said. “A small percentage of a million people is a huge number, still.” Deaths haven’t yet increased on a state level, but deaths can sometimes follow case counts by more than a month, Dr. Tao Kwan-Gett, the state’s chief science officer, noted in a Department of Health briefing on Thursday.
Unvaccinated people continue to suffer the worst symptoms, with a chance of dying 15 times higher than those who are vaccinated, state health leaders said Thursday. Important to note, Lynch said, is that vaccinated Washingtonians are still becoming infected, though at a “much lower proportion.” Those who have received booster shots are the most protected from both infection and hospitalization, he added.
“This does feel different,” Montanye said, speaking about what she’s seen in the southwestern corner of the state.
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