Nearly 30% of U.S. Hospitals Seeing Critical Staffing Shortages Amid Omicron Surge

The surge of new COVID-19 cases—led by the Omicron variant—are exacerbating ongoing staffing shortages at U.S. hospitals.

Of the 4,489 total reporting hospitals, 1,325 anticipate a critical staffing shortage within the week, one of the largest shortages by scale during the coronavirus pandemic.

The states with the worst figures for anticipated shortages are California, with 47 percent; New Mexico, with 53 percent; Missouri, with 43 percent; and Colorado, with 42 percent.

Hospitals in other states, namely Massachusetts, Ohio and Maine, have deployed National Guard troops to compensate for the staff crunches.

Read the full story at Newsweek.