Omicron Tidal Wave Shatters Covid Records In Hot Spots

Bloomberg: Colorado’s Covid Test Positivity Is Highest Of Pandemic At 30%
Thirty-percent of people tested for Covid-19 in Colorado are receiving positive results, the highest of the pandemic, as the omicron variant rages, officials said Wednesday. The data imply a high level of community spread with the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations surpassing an autumn peak, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. There are more hospital beds available in Colorado than during the delta variant peak in late 2021, Scott Bookman, the state’s Covid-19 incident commander, said during an online briefing. (Del Giudice, 1/12)

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska Shatters COVID-19 Case Record As Omicron Adds To Growing Strain On Hospitals
Around the state, some facilities are seeing higher numbers of patients sickened with other respiratory illnesses, or chronic health issues that may have been left untreated during previous surges, hospital administrators say. Other hospitals now have fewer staff than they did in the fall and are being hit with significant absences among workers who were exposed to or infected with the virus recently. The latest developments have dealt yet another blow to an exhausted health care workforce, and come just months after a delta-driven surge pushed many of the state’s hospitals close to a breaking point. (Berman and Krakow, 1/12)

AP: Virus Hospitalizations Rise In Hawaii As Omicron Spreads 
Hawaii recorded an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations Wednesday as the omicron variant continued to spread throughout the islands. State data initially showed was a 35% increase in hospitalizations from the previous day, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. But the newspaper later said the state mistakenly reported more than 400 hospitalizations due to double-counting one hospital’s patient census. (1/13)

The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Reports More Than 10,000 New Cases, Record COVID-19 Hospitalizations
A record 10,220 new coronavirus cases were reported in Utah in the past day, the health department announced Tuesday. It marked the first time Utah has reported more than 10,000 cases in a single day. (Alberty, 1/12)

Missouri Independent: Missouri Hits New Monthly Record For COVID Cases As Omicron Variant Spreads
Missouri has reported more cases of COVID-19 in the first 12 days of January than any full month of the pandemic so far. As a result of the massive spike of infections tied to the omicron variant, hospitalizations are also at record levels and schools in many communities are shutting their doors. And the state is likely not near the peak of cases. (Keller, 1/13)

KHN: Watch And Listen: Examining The Risks Of Covid’s Spread Within Hospitals
KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber appeared on Newsy’s “Evening Debrief” program to discuss her recent investigative series on the risks of covid’s spread within hospitals. The series, reported with Christina Jewett, documented how more than 10,000 patients were diagnosed with covid after being hospitalized for other medical conditions in 2020 — and how multiple gaps in government oversight fail to hold hospitals accountable for high rates of such infections. Patients and their loved ones have few options to seek improvements to infection control policies after states passed a raft of liability shield laws nationwide. (1/13)

And it's not just the U.S. —

CNBC: WHO Says Omicron Cases Are 'Off The Charts' As Global Infections Set New Records
A record 15 million new Covid-19 infections were reported across the globe in a single week as omicron rapidly replaces delta as the dominant variant across the globe, and “we know this is an underestimate,” World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a press briefing Wednesday. (Feiner, 1/12)