Omicron Lands in U.S. With Hospitals Still Battered by Covid (1)

The omicron variant will be met in the U.S. by a health-care system accustomed to Covid-19 surges yet battered by almost two years of fighting the pandemic with no end in sight.

The availability of vaccines, treatments and steady supplies of protective gear have made many hospitals better equipped than ever to cope with Covid admissions that have been rising nationally since early November.

But medical workers are depleted from battling the virus, and a weary public has abandoned precautions that slowed the early spread of SARS-CoV-2. Much remains unknown about omicron, which first surfaced in the U.S. Wednesday in ...