Former task force head of the Biden administration, Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, predicted on Sunday that COVID-19 will be endemic to the U.S. sometime in 2022.

The former head of Biden's Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board shared his comments on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday, crediting COVID becoming endemic due to increased vaccination rates, New York Post reported.

"We think that over the course of 2022, we will get to an endemic stage, and the plan is - or the proposal is - we need a strategic plan for that, that covers vaccines, getting more people vaccinated, and the only way to do that, as we've been very clear over time, is mandates," Emmanuel underscored.

However, Emmanuel noted that with the Omicron surge, the U.S. is still "very much" in the pandemic stage.

"If you've got 1,500 people a day dying from the disease, it's still a pandemic. And Omicron is spreading," the former Biden task force head highlighted.

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Ex-Biden Task Force: 'Other Measures' To Play a Role in Making COVID Manageable

Emmanuel also noted that other mitigation measures and new treatments will also play a role in making coronavirus in the U.S. more manageable. One of the measures Emmanuel mentioned was improving the ventilation system.

Emmanuel added that getting therapies available for everyone will also contribute to making COVID endemic in the United States.

According to Emmanuel, about 60 percent of Americans voluntarily received a COVID vaccine. However, the vaccination rate increased due to the workplace and jurisdictional vaccine mandates that are instituted.

As of Sunday, more than 74 percent of Americans received at least one shot of COVID vaccine. Meanwhile, 62.5 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated.

U.S. Hospitals Claim 'Critical Staffing Shortage' Amid Omicron Surge

The U.S. Department of Health and Services (HHS) recently revealed that about 24 percent of hospitals across the nation are reporting a "critical staffing shortage" as the Omicron variant continues to threaten the country's health care system.

Approximately 5,000 hospitals that reported the data to HHS on Saturday, nearly 1,200 - about 1 in 4 - claimed they are currently experiencing the issue. Meanwhile, more than 100 other hospitals also said that they anticipate a staffing shortage within the next week.

"The health care system is not just designed to take care of people with COVID... it's designed to take care of kids with appendicitis and people who have heart attacks and get into car accidents," Dr. Ashish Jha from Brown University's School of Public Health said on Sunday.

The staff shortages continue as frontline workers continue to be exposed to COVID-19, prompting them to become infected or forced to undergo quarantine as a treatment for the notorious disease.

As of Saturday, more than 138,000 COVID-19 patients are in hospitals, according to HHS. The said number is not far from the all-time high of about 142,200 in January last year.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

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