Omicron is spreading quickly, but fewer of the infected are ending up in the hospital

As the omicron variant coronavirus spreads rapidly, one positive is that a smaller percentage of infected people are winding up in the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms compared to earlier strains.

Washington, D.C.; New York City; Chicago; San Francisco and Seattle are among the cities that have seen rapid and substantial increases in the numbers of infections. There are also big surges in Miami, New Orleans and Houston.

But Dr. Robert Wachter at the University of California, San Francisco, tells NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff that fewer hospitalizations as a percentage of those infected is...