U.S. healthcare system intolerably stressed due to COVID-19: report

LOS ANGELES, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. current pandemic strategy is predicated on the assumption that people can move on from COVID-19, trusting that the healthcare system will be ready to hold the line. But that assumption is a fiction, said a report of The Atlantic.

Much of the system is still intolerably stressed, even in moments of apparent reprieve, said the report published on Wednesday.

Having apparently given up on curtailing the coronavirus, the federal administration is counting on vaccines and treatments decoupling infection from severe illness enough to prevent the healthcare system from becoming inundated again, said the report.

Enough healthcare workers, nurses, in particular, have quit their jobs that even when hospitals are not deluged, and the remaining workforce must care for an unreasonable number of patients over longer hours and more shifts, said the report.

Currently COVID-19 hospitalizations are climbing in 43 U.S. states, especially in the Northeast. People in most of New York City are now advised to mask indoors again, after rising hospitalizations triggered the "high" alert level by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the report.