Fauci Concerned About ‘Surging Hospitalizations’ Amid Confusion Over COVID-19 Isolation Period

Top government medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has concerns that the growing number of COVID-19 Omicron variant cases could lead to a surge in hospitalizations.

On Sunday, Fauci made appearances on the CNN program “State of the Union” and ABC News' “This Week,” where he discussed the potential impact from the more transmissible Omicron variant.

“The only difficulty is that if you have so many cases, even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with Omicron than it is with Delta, there is still the danger that you will have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the healthcare system,” Fauci told CNN.

Fauci also shared his concerns about how the potential rise in cases could overwhelm the healthcare system.

“When I say major disruption, you’re certainly going to see stresses on the system and the system being people with any kind of jobs ... particularly with critical jobs to keep society functioning normally,” Fauci said.

“We already know that there are reports from fire departments, from police departments in different cities that 10, 20, 25 and sometimes 30% of the people are ill. And that’s something that we need to be concerned about because we want to make sure that we don’t have such an impact on society that there really is a disruption. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

Fauci also revealed the CDC is working on sharing updated information about whether people with COVID-19 are required to test negative to leave isolation after the health agency released guidelines reducing the recommended quarantining period for asymptomatic people.

“There has been some concern about why we don’t ask people at that five-day period to get tested,” Fauci said.

“Looking at it again, there may be an option in that, that testing could be a part of that, and I think we’re going to be hearing more about that in the next day or so from the CDC.”

Fauci encouraged Americans to get vaccinated, receive the booster shot, and wear masks indoors to protect themselves against the virus amid the rising cases.