In many parts of the country, the Omacron wave is beginning to recede.

We're moving toward a time when COVID won't disrupt our daily lives.

That's White House advisor Jeff Zients sounding optimistic at a recent meeting of the COVID response

team. We're COVID won't be a constant crisis, but something we protect against and treat.

But while cases are dropping nearly as fast as they rose in cities across the country,

many hospitals aren't feeling the relief yet.

Was there work in just as hard to try to keep people alive with Omacron as we were with Delta?

Dr. Tyson Bell works in critical care at the University of Virginia Hospital.

The narrative that it's milder disease from the perspective of a health care system,

you know, nothing about this has been mild for us at all.

While Omacron is milder overall, the sheer number of people infected over the last few weeks

has overwhelmed health care workers. And Bell told NPR that three quarters of symptomatic

COVID patients in his hospital are not vaccinated.

I just kind of know that if they're young or middle age and, you know, don't have a lot of

underlying medical problems and they're in the ICU with COVID, you know, they're going to be

vaccinated patients. Hospitals have also been dealing with their own employees getting sick and

staying home. And other businesses are feeling that strain too.

Beginning in December, it's just like the floodgates opened and it's sort of been

full on since then. John Croft is the chief culture officer for the Maryland-based grocery chain

Moms Organic Market. And he told NPR earlier this month that for a time they had to let some tasks

slide. You know, like collecting cards in the parking lot, bagging groceries for every single

customer. Croft says at various points during the Omacron surge, they've had 15 or so employees

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