The Monroe County Health Department reported 1,822 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, setting a record that County Executive Adam Bello expects soon to be broken. Bello says if cases of the new Omicron variant keep expanding at the rate they’re going, we’ll see more than 2,000 cases a day within a few more days.
County and area hospital officials also announced that there are four pregnant women in the ICU at Strong Memorial Hospital with COVID, and one is on life support. Two were not vaccinated.
Both UR Medicine and Rochester Regional Health say their staffs are being hit by COVID as well, especially in the emergency departments. Only a few are seriously ill, but it all adds to the ongoing staffing shortages.
Dr. Michael Apostolakas of UR Medicine says historic numbers of his faculty and staff are quarantined because of COVID. He says the rest of the staff has rallied, taken on extra shifts and managed to cover all the holes so far.