Over the past few weeks, the Tribune has received a steady influx of calls from residents who have had issues receiving their mail. Some were simply calling because they were eager to get their copies of the paper as soon as possible (and we were happy to handdeliver them a copy!). Others said they had gone several days without a delivery of any mail whatsoever.After looking into the matter ourselves, it appears the reason for the issues was exactly what one may have assumed, given the times. Livingston’s postal workers are dealing with staffing issues related to the highly-contagious omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.This doesn’t make it any less frustrating for those who have not regularly received their mail. Believe us, we get it! But the post office is far from the only place that is currently dealing with staffing issues. We see it as we wait in long lines to pick up food or pay for groceries; with banks and other places of business that have closed their brick and mortar buildings because they don’t have the staff to accommodate customers; with staff shortages at restaurants; at our airports for those of us who have tried to travel recently, only to have to deal with cancellations; and at our doctors’ offices as the wait times to be seen make the trip seem too daunting to endure for some.Of course, we also see these problems at our hospitals, which have a high capacity of patients while also enduring staffing issues, and in finding COVID-19 tests. For PCR tests, there is also the issue of receiving results in a manner timely enough for the test to even be useful.Couple these shortages with the changing of isolation and quarantine guidelines by the CDC, and it is easy to see how this situation is making life a bit of a nightmare for workers and customers alike. Some businesses have even been forced to temporarily close, as too much of the staff is sick at a given time.Based on the daily case numbers we are seeing from the state, it appears that we have passed the peak of this record breaking COVID wave and, hopefully, it crashes down to a low level as fast as it shot up. Patterns in other parts of the world would indicate that such a trajectory is possible. And if that is the case, it would mean that ...
