Omicron cases in the US have soared by 32 per cent in 24 hours, with White House COVID tsar Dr Anthony Fauci warning of its 'extraordi...
Omicron cases in the US have soared by 32 per cent in 24 hours, with White House COVID tsar Dr Anthony Fauci warning of its 'extraordinary' ability to spread and saying cases will double every three days.
Confirmed US Omicron cases jumped by a third overnight, from 241 on Wednesday to 319 on Thursday, although experts have warned those are the tip of the iceberg, and that American cases likely already number in the tens of thousands.
Immunologists have also warned of a potential triple-whammy of Omicron, Delta and regular flu infections this winter. Two doctors interviewed by DailyMail.com said those who haven't received a booster shot should consider effectively returning to Spring 2020-style self-isolation, when COVID's Alpha variant raged through the US, and no vaccines were available.
Speaking on Good Morning America on Thursday, Fauci warned: 'Certainly what [Omicron] is showing us in other countries [is that it spreads faster than other variants] and I believe soon in our own country.
'It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread. It has what we call a doubling time of around three days.'
The doubling time of three days is slightly longer than the 2.5 days reported by British and South African health officials. The US is much larger, with most of it not as densely populated as the UK or South Africa. But Omicron is believed to represent up to 13 per cent of new diagnoses in New Jersey and New York - states with extremely well-populated areas, giving a possible early taste of what's to come with the new strain.
Fauci continues to urge Americans to get vaccinated, and boosted, to protect themselves from the virus, especially now with the new threat of Omicron circulating.
'We need to do everything that we have been talking about up to now, and even more so,' he said.
Dr Anthony Fauci (pictured), the nation's top infectious disease expert told Good Morning America on Thursday that Omicron transmits very efficiently, and the current outbreaks overseas are signs of things to come for the U.S. if more people do not get boosted
He spoke hours after the CDC agency released forecasts on Wednesday night showing that weekly Covid cases will increase by 55 percent to 1.3 million per week - or 185,714 per day - by Christmas.
It also predicted deaths with jump by 73 percent to up to 15,600 per day by early January - or 2,228 deaths per day.
The Delta variant is still the dominant Covid strain in the U.S., accounting for around 97 percent of sequenced cases. Omicron is quickly making up ground, though, with the newly discovered variant jumping seven-fold from making up 0.4 percent of cases to 2.9 percent of case.
Dr Chris Thompson (pictured), an infectious disease expert at Loyola University of Maryland, said that Americans who have not yet been boosted should bring back some early-pandemic habits
The CDC projects that up to 15,600 Americans will die of Covid during the week that ends on January 8
Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, has warned of a nightmare scenario where Delta, Omicron and regular seasonal flu could combine to inflict the winter from hell on US hospitals.
She told CNN: 'It's the combination. It's kind of the perfect storm of public health impacts here with Delta already impacting many areas of the country and jurisdictions. We don't want to overwhelm systems more.'
Early data also shows that people who are only fully vaccinated, but have not yet received their booster, are still extremely vulnerable to the virus, with Johnson & Johnson's single-dose shot offering effectively no protection.
Booster shots have been deemed effective against the variant, though, with both Moderna and Pfizer revealing data in recent days showing their vaccines will cause massive increases in antibody levels.
The CDC projects that there will be up to 1.3 million new Covid cases recorded during the week of Christmas
Only around 16 percent of Americans have received the additional vaccine dose so far though - as they were not widely available until late November - meaning that more than 80 percent of Americans are at risk from Omicron.
Dr Chris Thompson is an infectious disease expert at Loyola University of Maryland. He told DailyMail.com on Thursday that people who have not received their booster dose yet may want to bring back some early pandemic habits like social distancing, masking, frequent hand washing and more.
'The data that I've seen says that you're about 33 percent protected after a two dose regimen of either of the mRNA vaccines [the Pfizer or Moderna shots] and we don't have good data from Johnson and Johnson's vaccine yet. Then if you get your booster you look like you get back up into the 75 percent protection range and for preventing disease'
Whether Delta or Omicron, U.S. is experiencing yet another surge of Covid cases during the holiday season. The nation is recording 121,188 new cases every day - a 40 percent increase over the past two weeks. Deaths are making a sharp rise as well, up 34 percent to 1,302 per week.
The number of Americans hospitalized with the virus increased over the past 14 days as well, up 21 percent to 68,079.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that the situation will only worsen as well.
The UK is the world's leader in sequenced Omicron cases, reaching 11,708 on Thursday - adding over 4,000 cases in only one day earlier this week. London, the nation's capital, has become on of the world's Covid hotspots, with the new variant now making up around 40 percent of cases in the city.
The islands also reported a record 88,376 new cases on Thrusday, as the dire situation only worsens.
Denmark is following right behind, with 6,047 sequenced cases of the variant as of Thursday morning, with the nation also reporting a record 9,999 cases on Thursday as the nation deals with a surge of its own.
In South Africa, where the highly mutated variant was first discovered last month, the 1,000th Omicron case was reported Wednesday, becoming the fourth country to reach that mark in recent weeks.
Dr Thompson says that the Omicron variant will likely take over the U.S.'s dominant strain within the coming months, but how soon will depend on the behavior of Americans.
It's hard to predict because so much depends on our behaviors,' he said.
'Travel and holidays and everything else [will affect Omicron spread], but since a fair number of people have received their booster and a lot of people are being more cautious, I'm hopeful that we can delay [Omicron overtaking Delta] for a while.'
He also said that it is likely that Omicron and Delta both continue to cause outbreaks across the U.S., just in different areas. In parts of the country where vaccination remains low, the Delta variant will continue its rampant spread.
In areas where people are protected from Delta by the vaccines, the Omicron variant will manage to take hold.
Some areas of the country are already reporting sharp increases in cases. Jackson Health System, in Miami, Florida, reports that its Covid test positivity rate has reached seven percent - after only one percent of cases were coming back positive in November.
Lingering around the corner may be an outbreak of the flu as well. While influenza is a relatively minor virus compared to Covid, danger from the virus grows as Covid does.
'[The flu] tends to peak right around Christmas time,' he said.
'The concern is that our hospitals are so overwhelmed with Covid patients right now that we don't have room for influenza cases. And normally we have about 30 to 40,000 deaths. per year from influenza. And a lot of those deaths could be prevented by going to the hospital.'
Last year, the flu was nearly non-existent as strict masking and social distancing measures will still in place around the country.
As people return to a semblance of normal life this winter, the flu has a chance to return from its dormancy and affect the lives of American's once again.
All of this comes as the holiday season is in full swing, though. Millions of Americans plan to travel for large Christmas gatherings next week. With many festivities canceled last year by the pandemic, Americans will be more willing to take health risks to gather with family and friends this time around.
Large gatherings, and thousands of people interacting with each other at travel hubs like airports and train stations, create the perfect conditions for the both viruses to spread, though.
'I think everyone needs to do their own risk assessment and look at the risk of severe infection, the risk of transmitting the infection, and the risk of severe disease to a risk of exposure,' Thompson said about holiday travel in the time of Omicron.
Dr William Schaffer, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told DailyMail.com that Americans who plan to attend large gatherings should make sure to get boosted, and even take a Covid test in the days before and after the event to control potential spread of the virus.
The U.S. is not the only country dealing with rampant Covid spread this time of the year, though, and the situation in many European countries could serve as a warning stateside.
Meanwhile, American officials have also discovered its first massive outbreak of Omicron, this week at Upstate New York's Cornell University.
The school recorded 930 Covid cases this week, with almost all of the sequenced cases showing indicators that they were Omicron. School officials also report that every believed Omicron case discovered is among a fully vaccinated person. According to official data from the school, 97 percent of on-campus students and staff are fully vaccinated.
Cornell has since shut its campus down and will finish the semester virtually. Princeton and New York University - which are dealing with smaller but still worrying surges in cases - have made the same moves as well to prevent another situation like Cornell's.
If the UK is any indicator, situations like Cornell's will become common place in much of America, and the rest of the world.
The country is currently dealing with a massive surge of cases, recording a record 88,376 new cases on Thursday. Over the past week, the UK is averaging 57,074 cases per day, with that figure expected to dramatically shift upwards in the near future.
London is being struck particularly hard, accounting for a third of the new cases recorded Thursday. It is believed that the new strain is making up around 40 percent of new cases in the country.
Omicron is fueling the spread, so far being sequenced 11,708 times in the UK, though is is actually believed to have accounted for over 100,000 cases so far.
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.
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