Reuters (March 26)
“Thanks to advances in AI, chips and hardware, the United States and China are now racing to develop humanoid robots that can be deployed in factories, restaurants, hospitals and even households. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently declared that in less than five years, humanoid robots will be widely used in manufacturing.” At the moment, “China has shaky upper hand in battle of the robots” and tremendous motivation to succeed. The country faces a tremendous “labour crunch: in 2021 officials forecasted a shortage of nearly 30 million manufacturing workers by 2025” and this is projected to grow worse as China’s workforce continues to contract.
Tags: AI, Battle, China, Chips, Crunch, Factories, Hardware, Hospitals, Households, Huang, Humanoid, Labour, Manufacturing, Nvidia, Restaurants, Robots, Shortage, U.S.
New York Times (December 28)
“China’s hospitals were already overcrowded, underfunded and inadequately staffed in the best of times. But now with Covid spreading freely for the first time in China, the medical system is being pushed to its limits.”
Tags: China, Covid, Hospitals, Inadequate, Medical system, Overcrowded, Spreading, Staff, Underfunded
BBC (September 12)
China “is the world’s last major economy attempting to entirely stamp out Covid outbreaks, claiming this is necessary to prevent wider surges of the virus which could overwhelm hospitals.” At present, “tens of millions of people in at least 30 regions have been ordered to stay at home under partial or full lockdowns,” with some of the impacted residents “complaining of shortages of food and essential items.”
Tags: China, Complaining, Covid outbreaks, Food, Home, Hospitals, Last, Lockdowns, Major economy, Overwhelm, Prevent, Residents, Shortages, Stamp out, Surges, Virus
South China Morning Post (February 17)
“Omicron has brought Hong Kong to its knees.” Things have gone “so horribly wrong” as the zero-Covid policy buckled. The health care system now teeters “on the brink of collapse.” Patients now “lie in beds outside hospitals and thousands more wait days for admission to isolation facilities.”
Tags: Admission, Collapse, Health-care system, Hong Kong, Horribly wrong, Hospitals, Isolation, Omicron, Patients, Zero COVID
Chicago Tribune (January 3)
“Chicago-area hospitals are postponing many elective surgeries, as Illinois on Sunday set a record for COVID-19 hospitalizations…. Statewide, there were 6,294 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, surpassing the previous peak of 6,175 on Nov. 20, 2020.” In addition to the influx of COVID-19 patients, hospitals are struggling with “industrywide staffing shortages” worsened by staff testing positive to breakthrough infections.
Tags: Chicago, COVID-19, Elective surgeries, Hospitalizations, Hospitals, Illinois, Patients, Postponing, Record
Associated Press (January 1)
“New Year’s Eve, which used to be celebrated globally with a free-spirited wildness, felt instead like a case of deja vu, with the fast-spreading omicron variant again filing hospitals.”
Tags: Celebrated, Déjà vu, Fast-spreading, Free-spirited, Hospitals, New Year’s Eve, Omicron, Variant, Wildness
Wall Street Journal (December 23)
“Businesses, schools, hospitals and governments are preparing for a new year with a sense of déjà vu, as the spread of Covid-19’s Omicron variant brings a familiar challenge: how best to navigate another surge. This time, they’re hopeful they can stay open and operating.”
Tags: Businesses, Challenge, COVID-19, Déjà vu, Governments, Hospitals, Omicron, Schools, Spread, Surge, Variant
San Francisco Chronicle (November 18)
“Officials are concerned hospitals could be strained this winter as COVID-19 cases increase across the region ahead of Thanksgiving weekend.” In San Francisco infection rates have already “risen sharply in recent weeks…. With people expected to travel, gather with friends and spend more time indoors over the next few weeks… the region could soon head for another surge.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hospitals, Indoors, Infection rates, Officials, San Francisco, Strained, Surge, Thanksgiving, Travel, Winter
Tampa Bay Times (September 7)
“For weeks, the virus preyed on America’s illusion of a defanged Covid. Most people returned to a semblance of their former lives.” Then, harsh reality set in. “The fast-spreading Delta variant has flooded hospitals across the South. It’s killed more people in Florida and Louisiana than the darkest days of the pandemic winter, and left so many COVID-19 patients gasping for breath that some places face shortages of medical oxygen.”
Tags: COVID-19, Defanged, Delta, Fast-spreading, Florida, Gasping, Hospitals, Illusion, Louisiana, Oxygen, Pandemic, Patients, Reality, Shortages, Virus
Philadelphia Inquirer (August 24)
“This is a new phase of vaccinations’ Get tough. Restaurants, cruise lines, colleges, and a growing number of employers—hospitals, municipal governments, Amtrak, Citigroup—are telling workers and customers to prove they’ve been vaccinated or go elsewhere. And all that was before Monday’s full authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.”
Tags: Amtrak, Authorization, Citigroup, Colleges, Cruise lines, Customers, Employers, Hospitals, Pfizer-BioNTech, Phase, Restaurants, Vaccinations, Workers
