Variant vexing front-line workers
Surge in omicron stretches weary staffs thin again
BOSTON — Staff absences for COVID-19 tripled this month in London’s hospitals, and nearly 10% of the city’s firefighters called out sick.
In New York, about 2,700 police officers were absent earlier this week — twice the number who are ill on an average day. And on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, grocery worker Judy Snarsky says she’s stretched to her limit, working 50 hours a week and doing extra tasks because her supermarket has around 100 workers when it should have closer to 150.
“Everybody is working as much as they physically and mentally can,” the 59-yearold in Mashpee said. “Some of us have been going like a freight train.”
The worldwide surge in coronavirus cases driven by the new omicron variant is the latest blow to hospitals, police departments, supermarkets and other critical operations struggling to maintain a full contingent of front-line workers as the pandemic enters its third year.
Governments have taken steps to stem the bleeding across a range of jobs considered essential for society, from truckers and janitors to child care providers and train conductors. But nurses and other workers worry that continued staffing woes will put the public at greater risk and increase burnout and fatigue.
Seattle Officer Mike Solan, who leads his city’s police union, said his department is down about 300 officers from its usual force of 1,350.
“It’s difficult for our community because they’re waiting for that call for help,” he said. “And then we’re at risk because we don’t have the proper safe numbers to have a safe working environment when we answer that call for help.”
Michelle Gonzalez, a nurse at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, said she and her intensive care unit colleagues never truly had a break from COVID-19.
“Prior to work, I get really bad anxiety,” she said. “If I’ve been off for two days, I will come back in a panic because I don’t know what I’m walking into.”
Countries including Spain and the U.K. have reduced the length of COVID-19 quarantines to ease staffing shortages by letting people return to work sooner after testing positive or being exposed to the virus. The U.S. did similar for health care workers only.
Meanwhile some states, such as Massachusetts, have called in hundreds of National Guard members to help fill the gaps in hospitals and nursing homes, where they serve meals, transport patients and do other nonclinical work.
In London, the U.K.’s omicron epicenter, a wave of staff absences is hitting hospitals just as COVID-19 admissions have doubled in three weeks. The latest surge will probably persist until mid-January, officials said.
The operators of U.S. nursing homes, which were crippled by some of the deadliest COVID19 outbreaks early in the pandemic, are among those pleading for officials to do more.
While cases in long-term care facilities have not risen sharply yet, the industry is bracing for omicron with 15% fewer workers today than when the pandemic began, said Rachel Reeves, a spokesperson for the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, an industry trade group.
Nursing homes historically struggle to compete with other health care operators because their pay rates are effectively fixed by the government, she said, so providers hope President Joe Biden’s administration can boost Medicaid funding and create staff recruitment and retention programs.
“Caregivers are burned out,” Reeves said. “Not only have many experienced tremendous loss, it has been exhausting — physically and emotionally — battling this virus day in and day out.”
Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan provides $350 billion for state and local governments to provide “premium pay” to essential workers. States are also using other buckets of pandemic funds to bolster their workforce.
But it’s not just health care systems warning of dire consequences and seeking more support.
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, was among those who have called on the Biden administration to cut recommended COVID19 quarantine times down to five days, or risk further disruptions in air travel. Delta, United and Lufthansa have canceled dozens of flights over the Christmas period as illnesses take a toll on flight crews.
In the U.K., train company LNER said this week that it’s canceling 16 trains a day until Christmas Eve. Transport for London, which operates the subway and employs about 28,000 people, also warned of slowdowns because 500 front-line staff are off work because of COVID-19-related illness.
Daniel Schneider, a Harvard professor focused on low-income workers, said the public should keep in mind that essential workers don’t have the luxury of working from home, as some Americans do.
“White-collar workers need to appreciate the real
risks that these folks take,” he said. “You can’t ring up groceries from home.”