Inslee provides support to hospitals to fight Omicron variant

With COVID-19 cases rising due to the transmissibility of the Omicron variant, hospitals are seeing a dramatic increase in COVID hospitalizations. The health care staffing shortages have led hospitals to be at or over their capacity to treat patients. 

Gov. Jay Inslee announced that the state will be taking a number of actions to help alleviate the staffing crisis in hospitals.

The governor was joined for the virtual press conference by Umair Shah, MD, MPH, secretary, Washington State Department of Health and General Bret Daugherty, Washington State Military Department.

The governor announced a variety of tools to help support hospitals including, deploying the Washington State National Guard, putting a pause on non-urgent medical procedures, additional efforts to discharge patients into long-term care facilities and additional resources for healthcare workers.

Read the rest of the story on the governor's Medium page.