The FDNY faced a shortage of EMS crews over the holiday, stretching the department thin as it struggled to respond to a surge of emergency calls made worse by the Omicron wave. Roughly 19% of the city’s more than 4,000 EMS workers were out sick Saturday, Christmas Day, up from the typical rate of about 5%, an FDNY spokesman said. The shortage — caused in part by crews isolating with COVID-19 cases — comes as the city’s daily number of cases continued a record breaking streak. “Christmas Day is usually not that busy,” said Alomojera. Personal leave is on hold — and most training classes have been suspended to free up crews to respond to calls, the memo states.

Source: thestar December 26, 2021 13:08 UTC