U.S. health experts said that a spike in COVID-19 cases was observed during the start of 2022.
2022 welcomes a massive influx of Covid-19 that’s different from any other during this pandemic, according to health experts.
The Unprecedented Spikes in COVID-19
This Covid-19 surge is ‘unprecedented in this pandemic‘, the U.S. health care system is in for significant pain in the short term, but the fast surge could even help beat the pandemic in the longer run by dispatching broader immunity. Experts are calling people to make an effort to be precautions in mask-wearing in public. Experts also predict that later in January or in early February, COVID cases will surge in the U.S.
Rochelle Walensky Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director said Friday the experience in South Africa indicates a “precipitous increase and then a precipitous decline,” in an “ice pick,” shape, though she noted that the pattern could travel across the country at different times. Carlos del Rio, an infectious diseases professor at Emory University School of Medicine, also envisions that it will hit its peak “between the third week of January and the first or around in the middle of February.”
Read Also: Omicron fuels unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases
The Omicron Variant
Early studies show that the Omicron variant is milder on average than the Delta variant, which still makes up a considerable portion of US Covid-19 cases. Furthermore, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that Omicron is much more contagious, compared to the other strain, a raw number of Covid-19 hospitalizations might get worse. People who are vaccinated and had their booster are well protected against severe disease compared to the unvaccinated.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration said that Omicron might be more troublesome for young children. CDC shows by December 28, an average number of 378 children were admitted to hospitals every day with Covid-19, That’s a 66% jump from the previous week. It also beat the previous record of 342 set during the surge of the Delta variant at the beginning of the school year. The more transmissible Omicron variant might postpone face-to-face schools in the US.
The Unvaccinated are the Vast Majority Affected by COVID
Fully vaccinated Americans are less likely to get infected with Omicron compared to the unvaccinated they are prone to experience severe hospitalizations. US doctors said most of the people hospitalized for Covid-19 are unvaccinated.
Several reports claim that most of the Covid-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs) are people without a vaccine. though this year calls from public health experts that everyone should get vaccinated and booster only about 62% in the US population are fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. It shows a rating of around 33.4% is fully vaccinated that have received their booster doses.
Related Article: Unvaccinated people “are 17 times more likely” to be hospitalized with Covid-19, CDC chief says
