COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS IN U.S. NEAR HISTORIC LOW

COVID-19 hospitalization numbers have plunged to their lowest levels since the early days of the pandemic, offering a muchneeded break to health care workers and patients alike following the Omicron surge.

The number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus has fallen more than 90% in more than two months, and some hospitals are going days without a single COVID-19 patient in the ICU for the first time since early 2020.

The freed up beds are expected to help U.S. hospitals retain exhausted staff, treat non-COVID-19 patients more quickly and cut down on inflated costs.

Hospitalizations are now at their lowest point since summer 2020. The average number of people hospitalized with COVID in the last week nationwide dropped to 11,860, a steep decline from the peak of more than 145,000 set in mid-January. The previous low was 12,041 last June, before the Delta variant took hold.