It was one small episode that has stuck with Bhate and underscored what she has been seeing more broadly — the consequences of the latest, punishing wave of the pandemic to slam into hospital emergency rooms across this country. Omicron is not like the Delta variant, nor does the current wave resemble the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, front-line physicians say. Dr. Atul Kapur, an emergency physician at The Ottawa Hospital, said that in past waves, patients could get seriously sick. That’s still true with Omicron, especially for the unvaccinated, but now, Omicron patients are showing up with a “simple headache, nausea, vomiting,” he said. It could all lead to a situation where emergency physicians aren’t able to provide essential care, said Bhate.

Source: thestar January 07, 2022 15:47 UTC