Its hard to tell how bad it is with the numbers in that. Using whole numbers in regards to cases, but percentage increase in regards to hospitalizations.
Omicron is supposed to be more contagious than Delta. And if cases rise by 700% in a single week (2300 to 16,000), I would expect hospitalizations to rise by a similar measurement. Which is what 30-40% increase in Covid beds would be. But that still doesn't mean its bad.
There's a big difference between going from 1 Covid patient to 7 Covid patients in a week or going from 1,000 patients to 7,000 patients. Both similar increases, but vastly different hospitalization rates. What is the hospitalization rate? What is an "alarming number of children under the age of 5?"
I wish these articles would always just lay out the data. It may be terrible and if so, we need to know. But feel like they try and present it in a way to get a "welp" or "that....seems really bad."