Four English Lincolnshire County Hospitals have declared themselves in an emergency situation and limited some services due to a staff shortage caused by infections of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
The medical director of the United Lincolnshire Hospitals Foundation, which manages the centers, Colin Farquharson, has stated that “there is significant pressure on staff due to absences related to COVID-19” and “additional steps are being taken to maintain services” in the towns of Lincoln, Boston and Grantham.
As support measures, the Foundation imposed restrictions on visits a few days ago to slow the spread of the omicron variant and workers have been asked to offer overtime in the next 72 hours and try to limit their contacts with people outside of work, the public broadcaster indicates.
Also the hospitality sector and UK retailers have warned they are facing heavy casualties due to COVID lockdowns and they warn that many establishments may have to close.
The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday asked the heads of public sector organizations to make “contingency plans” in the event of a possible absence of up to 25% of employees due to contagion of the virus, especially in Health and Education.
These casualties too are being noticed in Australian supermarkets, where there are empty shelves. Instead of products there are posters announcing the impact of this new variant. With the sick replenishers they hardly have manpower, nor distributors to supply the establishments.
An even worse problem in the meat industry, where many employees live together and if one catches it, the rest have to isolate themselves too. That is why they demand that they be tested for antigens on a daily basis to manage the food supply chain.
In United States have set the absolute record for the pandemic with at least a million infections on Monday. There they also suffer from the loss of health workers and there are empty beds in the hospitals that they cannot occupy because they do not have the means to attend to them.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
