“Every [healthcare] institution I know has had countless healthcare workers who contracted covid over the last couple of weeks, more than I’ve seen in this entire pandemic,” says Shikha Jain, CEO of Impact, an advocacy organization for healthcare workers.
To address the shortage, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released emergency guidance on Dec. 23, decreasing the time healthcare workers have to quarantine if they test positive with covid-19. The goal is to have more personnel available, but it might have the opposite effect.