Many residents in the United States of America (USA) are faced with a double coronavirus surge even as omicron advances.
According to Associated Press, the new omicron coronavirus mutant speeding around the world may bring another wave of chaos, threatening to further stretch hospital workers already struggling with a surge of delta cases and upend holiday plans for the second year in a row.
A statement from the White House on Wednesday insisted there was no need for a lockdown because vaccines are widely available and appear to offer protection against the worst consequences of the virus. But even if omicron proves milder on the whole than delta, it may disarm some of the lifesaving tools available and put immune-compromised and elderly people at particular risk as it begins a rapid assault on the US.
Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for research collaboration by Harvard Medical School, disclosed that the US delta surge is ongoing and, in fact, accelerating. And on top of that, the country is faced with the added surge of omicron.
“That is alarming because our hospitals are already filling up. Staff are fatigued,” leaving limited capacity for a potential crush of COVID-19 cases “from an omicron wave superimposed on a delta surge,” Lemieux said.
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Experts in the US believe that an omicron surge is already underway in the United States, with the latest mutant coronavirus outpacing the nation’s ability to track it.
Based on specimens collected last week, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said omicron accounted for about 3% of genetically-sequenced coronaviruses nationally. Percentages vary by region, with the highest — 13percent — in the New York/New Jersey area.
But Harvard experts said these are likely underestimates because omicron is moving so fast that surveillance attempts cannot keep up.
Globally, more than 75 countries have reported confirmed cases of omicron. In the United States, 36 states have detected the variant. Meanwhile, delta is surging in many places, with hot spots in New England and the upper Midwest. The five states with the highest two-week rolling average of cases per 100,000 people are New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Michigan, Minnesota, and Vermont.
Health officials have called on Americans to get vaccinated, get their booster shots, wear masks indoors, and get tested before traveling and before holiday gatherings.
According to Michael Fraser, chief executive officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, “Hospital capacity is already at a breaking point in many states because of severe cases of COVID-19.”
Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is worried that given the high level of transmission there will undoubtedly be severe cases that will affect the most vulnerable.
“No matter how severely it affects healthy, fully vaccinated, and boosted populations, it will hit the most vulnerable among us the hardest still.
“So the elderly, the immunocompromised, other vulnerable populations will still be at greatest risk and still bear the brunt of this,” she said.
