#Nearly 9 million Americans called out sick from COVID in 2022

The number of Americans who called out sick from work because of COVID-19 spiked to nearly 9 million in the first two weeks of 2022, data shows.

The Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey released Wednesday showed 8.8 million people reported not being at work because of COVID-related reasons between Dec. 29 and Jan. 10.

The staggering figure was a 65 percent increase from the 3 million who called out sick between Dec. 1 to Dec. 13 before the Omicron wave started to rage.

It wasn’t clear from the data how many of the 8.8 million workers had to skip work because they were sick with symptoms, as opposed to isolating due to a positive test or close contact.

New COVID-19 cases across the US have plunged 53 percent since peaking at a record 1.4 million infections recorded on Jan. 10, statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University show.

There were 644,814 new cases and 2,479 new deaths recorded across the country on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins.

Cases are rapidly declining in states, particularly in the Northeast, that were hardest hit by the fast-spreading Omicron variant — offering a glimmer of hope that the winter surge is starting to ease.

While infections are still climbing in Midwestern and Southern states, the increase has slowed considerably in recent weeks, the data shows.

Nationally, deaths — which usually lag about three weeks behind cases — are averaging about 1,950 a day. Fatalities are up from 1,300 at the start of the month but well below the 3,300 lives lost a day during the surge in January 2021.

COVID hospitalizations, also a lagging indicator, hit a record high on Wednesday of 152,555 across the country.

The number of hospitalizations has been showing signs of stabilizing around the 150,000 mark over the past week.

With Post wires