US confirmed Omicron cases grow by 25% within 24 hours and COVID infections TRIPLE in Hawaii and Florida: Expert warns 'the goal cannot be to avoid infection at all costs' with MILLIONS expected to test positive in coming weeks
The United States has reached a startling milestone in its fight against the new Omicron variant. Over the weekend, the nation eclipsed 1,000 cases of the strain, with 221 infections being recorded between Sunday and early Monday morning.
The country has now joined a dubious group of five countries with more than 1,000 cases of the new variant, reaching 1,079 as of Monday morning - a 25 percent increase from the 858 cases confirmed on Sunday morning.
It comes as experts begin to learn more about the variant, which was first discovered late last month in South Africa. Omicron is the most mutated Covid strain yet, with over 50 mutations total - including 30 on its spike protein. Early data shows it can evade protection provided by all three available Covid vaccines, though getting a booster shot can significantly shore up a person's protection against infection.
On Monday morning, Dr Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told ABC's Good Morning America that America should move past trying to prevent infections, and instead work to stop hospitalizations and deaths.
'The goal cannot be to avoid infection at all costs,' he said. 'That's an unrealistic goal. The goal should be prevent deaths and severe illness which vaccines will do.'
As of last week, the variant accounted for three percent of active cases in the U.S., though the figure will likely be higher when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports figures this week. The Delta variant, which caused a massive case surge over summer, accounted for 97 percent of cases that week.
No matter the variant, Covid is spiraling out of control in the U.S., though the growth of cases has slightly slowed over the past week. As of Monday morning, 133,012 Americans are testing positive for Covid every day, a 21 percent increase over the past two weeks.
America's daily death total has remained steady over the past week despite the increase in cases. As of Monday, 1,296 cases are being recorded every day, a nine percent increase over the past two weeks. Deaths not rising at the same rate as cases is a positive sign that the vaccines are still effective at stopping breakthrough cases from developing into severe cases.
Hospitalizations are increasing, though, with 69,387 people being admitted due to the virus each day - a 16 percent increase over the past two weeks.
The largest increases are being felt by Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Both islands have been hard struck by this recent surge. In Puerto Rico, cases have jumped 619 percent over the past two weeks, though hospitalizations and deaths have remained low. Hawaii has experienced a 383 percent increase in Covid cases over the past two weeks - the most of any state - though the death rate has remained minimal.
Dr Ashish Jha (pictured), dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said that the U.S. should focus on preventing Covid hospitalizations and deaths, as preventing all infections at this point is an 'unrealistic goal'
While more vaccinated people are contracting the virus during this outbreak, it is still believed that unvaccinated people are mush more likely to suffer severe infection or death from Covid. Dr Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, told CBS Mornings on Monday that the unvaccinated are in deep danger.
Florida has also reported a 226 percent increase in Covid cases over the past two weeks, though figures from the state may be unreliable as it does not regularly report data. Washington D.C., which has proven to be another hotspot, has also recorded a 252 percent case increase over the past two weeks.
'There will be a stark difference between those that are vaccinated and boosted, and those that are unvaccinated,' he said.
'With those have maximal protection from a vaccination and boost, you either won't get infected or if you get an infection it will be most likely mild.
'But if you are unvaccinated I am worried about you. I'm worried that your risk of being hospitalized or, God-forbid, losing your life to this virus is quite significant.'
White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients issued a stark warning on Friday as well.
'For the unvaccinated, you're looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,' he said at a briefing Friday.
Most recent CDC data shows that 72.8 percent of Americans have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 61 percent of people are fully vaccinated. Around 18 percent - or 60.2 million - Americans have received their booster as well.
Data revealed by Moderna, manufacturer of the nation's second most commonly used vaccine, shows that its booster shot increases the availability of Omicron fighting antibodies 40-fold in people that are fully vaccinated. It matched similar date release by Pfizer earlier this month, reporting that a booster dose can re-establish protection against the vaccine evasive strain.
Another study last week found that the one-dose J&J vaccine provided little to no protection against infection from Omicron. Data on the company's booster shot is not yet available.
Over in the UK, the world leader in confirmed Omicron cases - with 37,101 sequenced - continues to reel in the wake of a new wave of the virus. Neil Ferguson, one of the nation's top epidemiologists warns that the country could face 5,000 deaths from the variant every day and the National Health Service (NHS) could be overwhelmed if a new lockdown is not imposed.
The new strain is now also the dominant variant in the UK.
Also among the global Omicron leaders in Denmark, with 15,452 confirmed cases, may soon go into another lockdown with capacity restrictions in many venues and the closure of some event spaces like theatres to handle a record surge in the Nordic nation.
Norway has confirmed 3,394 cases, and has entered partial lockdown of its own. The country was among the first to experience an outbreak tied to the variant after a holiday party by a local energy company in Cape Town, South Africa, brought dozens of cases of the variant back into Norway.
'It still remains the case that getting vaccinated and boosted is the best way to protect yourself, even against Omicron,' Murthy said.
The Surgeon General said that the most important metric for judging the vaccines is the ability to prevent hospitalizations and deaths from Covid, which are still unlikely for people with booster shots. He does warn that people who are boosted can still suffer a breakthrough infection.
This all comes during the holiday season. Millions of Americans plan to travel this week - if they have not already - to visit family and friends around the country for Christmas. Especially after many holiday festivities were canceled last year, it would be hard to convince people not to meet with family for the holidays.
Dr Jha says that travel is safe as long as people have taken precautions.
'We know that planes themselves are pretty safe,' Jha said.
'What I advise family, friends, who are traveling over the holidays is [it is] obviously very helpful if they're fully vaccinated and boosted, that I think is the most important thing.
'The second most important thing is wearing a good mask, wearing a high quality mask. Because airports, other places, don't have great ventilation.
'Travel is doable safely, but we've got to take care of ourselves.'
He is also an advocate for schools to remain open as long as children are masked and regularly tested.
The Omicron variant is already spreading rapidly around the U.S., and accounts for at least three percent of active cases, if not more. In some major metropolitan areas, like Seattle and New York City, it could even be making up half of cases.
The CDC also warns that cases could quickly rocket in the U.S.
The agency released projections last week showing
America will suffer up to 15,600 new Covid deaths a week as of January 8 - or 2,228 deaths per day - a 58 per cent increase from 8,900 deaths currently being recorded each week, equivalent to 1,285 deaths a day.
Another CDC prediction estimates that between 620,000 and 1.3 million Americans will have been diagnosed with Covid by the week that ends on December 25 - Christmas Day.
That represents a 55 percent leap on the 840,000 cases that have been recorded over the last week.
Dr Pavitra Roychoudhury and her team of infectious disease experts at the University of Washington find that around 50 percent of cases in Seattle are of the Omicron variant. Her team uses spike gene target failure (SGTF) to sequence large batches of cases from the area. While SGTF is not as accurate as the genetic sequencing performed by health officials, it can give a good snapshot of the prevalence of certain variants in large sample sizes.
The CDC has been under intense criticism in recent weeks for its apparent failure to keep up with the new variant. The agency only releases data once a week on the prevalence of strains in the U.S., and the data reflects are previous week - meaning it is already outdated by the time it is public.
An inability for the CDC to regularly release variant data has made it impossible for America to get an accurate look at where the pandemic, and most notably the Omicron variant, stands.
Instead, the federal government has left the job up to state level officials, which all have different reporting schedules and are not uniform in their approach to the pandemic.
On the other hand, country's like the UK, Denmark, Norway and South Africa have all managed to sequence cases regularly and provide their populations with regular snapshots of the current state of the pandemic.
While Roychoudhury's team believes the prevalence of Omicron is much higher than three percent, the nation will not know last week's data until Tuesday.
She told DailyMail.com last week that she believes results from the Seattle area are likely reflective of many major U.S. cities, like New York City.
Dr Roychoudhury's team finds that 50% percent of Covid cases in Seattle, Washington, are of the Omicron variant, based of SGTF testing. She believes this figure applies to other major population centers in the U.S. as well
In New York, which quickly became a hub for the virus when it first arrived in March 2020, things are beginning to unravel. The city has been plagued with long lines at vaccine testing sites in all five boroughs. The city is averaging 7,683 new cases every day, a new record. In response, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would distribute 500,000 at-home tests and one million masks to residents to prevent the spread of the virus.
Across the pond, London has emerged as an early Omicron hub, and could be a preview of what is to come for the U.S. and other major population centers. Nearly every one-in-every-four positive cases in England are in London, and the variant is now the nation's dominant strain.
The UK is currently averaging a record 68,051 new Covid cases every day, with 93,045 Britons testing positive on Monday. The number of new cases in the country has increased by 60 percent over the past week. While deaths have remained low, a recent uptick in hospitalizations - up 7.3 percent to 900 per day last week - has some fearing the NHS could be overwhelmed.
Ferguson is among many health officials urging the Government to impose another lockdown on much of the UK to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not indicated either way on whether he would be open for another lockdown if cases in the country continue to grow.
Britain's daily Covid cases have rocketed to record levels for the third day in a row with 93,000 people diagnosed in 24 hours
Daily Covid cases in South Africa have risen 10 per cent in a week today. But the country is currently enjoying a public holiday, which likely skewed the figures
Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer of England, warns that 'records will be broken a lot' in the near future as the variant only continues to spread. He also warns that with the way the variant is doubling around every 2.5 days, the nation could face around 460,000 new Covid cases every day by Christmas Eve - a figure that would collapse the nation's health system.
Johnson did institute some measure to prevent the spread of the virus earlier this month, though, instituting a work from home order, enacting a mask mandate and requiring proof of vaccination or negative test to enter some venues.
Denmark is following behind the UK, having confirmed 15,452 cases of the Omicron variant as of Monday morning. The Nordic nation was struck early by one of the largest confirmed Omicron outbreaks and the situation has only been exacerbated since.
A Christmas lunch event in the Viborg region, attended by 150 students on November 27 from two local high schools has been linked to 70 cases of the variant, though all were mild.
Currently, the nation is averaging a record 8,984 new cases per day, a logged the largest single day Covid case total ever on Thursday with 9,999 cases added to the ledger.
Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen announced new measures to prevent spread of the virus last week, joining the UK.
People who can will now be ordered to work from home, and virtual schooling has been extended as well. On Friday, she announced that concert halls and theatres will be closed in response to a recent surge.
This comes after orders earlier this month, where bars and nightclubs were forced to have reduced operating hours, being forced to close at midnight now, in an effort to prevent transmission.
European Union officials are sounding alarms as well, saying that the variant could be the continent's dominant strain by mid-January.
In South Africa, the nation where the variant was first detected, Covid is beginning to recede, a promising sign that the nation's Omicron fueled outbreak is running out of steam after a month.
The nation is averaging 20,082 new cases every day, a decrease from last week when over 23,000 cases were being reported every day. While it is still a much larger figure than what the country was reporting only a month ago, it signals that the variant is potentially burning out.
Hospitalizations are on the way down, though, with eleven times fewer South Africans being hospitalized with Covid now than were during the Delta surge over summer - a sign of hope going forward as the U.S. and UK begin their own struggles with the virus.
South Africa recorded 6,887 Covid related hospitalizations last week, a decrease from the 7,433 recorded a week earlier.
No comments