SELLERSVILLE (AP) - Pennsylvania has deployed its first pandemic “strike team” of out-of-state health care workers to a suburban Philadelphia hospital under severe strain from COVID-19, the state’s top health official announced Monday.

The team, which includes nurses and respiratory therapists, started Saturday night at Grand View Hospital in Sellersville. Workers will staff the overnight shifts for the next 14 days.

The state’s Department of Health recently entered into a $75.5 million contract with General Healthcare Resources to supply health care workers for temporary assignment to hospitals in need of staffing assistance. The program opened last week and has received three such requests so far, said Acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter.

“Workers are tired and they deserve a break, and so that’s what we’re really here to do,” she said.

The highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus has spread rapidly across the state and the nation since last month. Many Pennsylvania hospitals are deluged with patients at the same time they are struggling with staffing shortages.