The high number of healthcare staff out with the virus will also have an impact on Americans’ doctors appointments and could make for dangerous circumstances when people are hospitalized with Covid-19, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor University’s National School of Tropical Medicine, said Friday.

“That’s a different type of one-two punch: people going into the hospitals … and all of the healthcare workers are out of the workforce,” he told CNN.

But the latest variant isn’t just shrinking healthcare staff numbers. As the virus spreads like wildfire across American communities, staffing problems are already altering parts of daily life.

Plagued with staffing issues, New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced last week several subway lines were suspended.

In Ohio, the mayor of Cincinnati declared a state of emergency due to staffing shortages in the city’s fire department following a rise in Covid-19 infections, saying in the declaration that if the problem goes unaddressed, it would “substantially undermine” first responders’ readiness levels.