Omicron slamming S. American hospitals as workers fall ill

Members of the Argentine Union of Health, which represents private healthcare providers, estimates that about 30% of its doctors have taken leave after showing light symptoms or coming into contact with someone infected.The third wave “is affecting the health team a lot, from the cleaning staff to the technicians, with a high percentage of sick people, despite having a complete vaccination schedule,” said Jorge Coronel, president of Argentina’s medical confederation. Last week, the facility stopped admitting new patients.“There has been a collapse, because we don’t have replacements,” said José Luís Guaman, interim president of the doctors’ union in Santa Cruz.Such is the risk of medical services grinding to a halt in Argentina’s Buenos Aires province — the country’s most populous — that health workers have been allowed to return to work even if coming into contact with someone infected, provided they are asymptomatic and vaccinated. Ten countries in the region — especially in the Caribbean — didn’t reach the goal set by the World Health Organization to have 40% of citizens fully vaccinated by end-2021.While a smaller fraction of people develop serious illness from the the highly-transmissible variant, the crush of contagion and resulting strain on hospitals means omicron shouldn’t be underestimated, said Lula, of the Brazilian health secretariat council.“People have to understand that the argument that omicron is ‘mild’ is false,” Lula said.