It’s likely that “the next month is going to be awful,” he said. But this does not mean that everyone should assume they will catch the virus, he said, noting the pattern of Omicron infections in the UK and South Africa.
The forecast could mean an average of 3,526 Covid-19 deaths per day, up from a current average of 1,251 each day, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
In the Kansas City metro area, hospitals are postponing certain surgeries due to employees out sick with Covid-19, according to more than a dozen doctors at a news conference Wednesday.
“This is, hands down, the toughest surge the medical community has had to face since the pandemic began in 2020,” according to Dr. Steven Stites, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed a state of disaster emergency on Thursday to alleviate some of the healthcare staffing shortages and constraints caused by the surge.
In Massachusetts, senior administrators of Boston Public Schools stepped into classrooms Wednesday to help fill in for hundreds of teachers who have called out.
“Some of our schools are experiencing more than a quarter of staff absent because of positive Covid tests or other issues,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said.
“We have restricted second-hand smoking, if you will, in public spaces due to second-hand smoke,” he said. “You can lose your ability to drive if you engage in risky behavior. So, we don’t live in a society that just says, ‘freedom means I can do what I want’ or ‘freedom means I have choice without any accountability or responsibility.’ When you hurt others, our mothers, put others at risk, you have got to take some responsibility.”
Boosters approved for those as young as 12
The decision follows the US Food and Drug Administration’s earlier expansion of the emergency use authorization for the booster.
“It is critical that we protect our children and teens from COVID-19 infection and the complications of severe disease,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
More than 72 million people are fully vaccinated and boosted against Covid-19, per CDC data. That’s less than half of the nearly 180 million people who are eligible to receive their booster shot and about a fifth of the total US population.
No vaccine is currently authorized in the US for children under 5, but ongoing studies may produce data for analysis in the first half of 2022, NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.
CDC will hold an independent briefing
The CDC will also hold a telebriefing on Friday to give updates on the pandemic. Walensky is scheduled to speak during that briefing.
It’s been months since the CDC has held a briefing like this. The agency usually participates in joint briefings with officials from the White House or the National Institutes of Health, such as Fauci. Its last independent Covid-19 briefing was July 27, 2021.
But the CDC has faced renewed criticism in recent weeks over confusion surrounding its guidelines on testing and isolation for people who test positive for Covid-19.
This week the agency updated that guidance after criticism from outside medical experts, and said that if people have access to a Covid-19 test and want to take it, the best approach is to use a rapid test toward the end of their five-day isolation period.
Expert: If you have symptoms, assume you have Covid
Researchers found on the day of and the day immediately following a positive PCR result, rapid antigen tests were all negative, even though 28 of the 30 people in the study had enough virus in their body to transmit it to others.
On average, the time from a first positive PCR test to a first positive rapid antigen test was 3 days, the study found.
“The policy implication is that rapid antigen tests may not be as fit-for-purpose in routine workplace screening to prevent asymptomatic spread of Omicron, compared to prior variants, given the shorter time from exposure to infectiousness and lower infectious doses sufficient for transmission,” the authors wrote. The results are considered preliminary and have yet to be peer-reviewed.
Individuals who are experiencing Covid-19 symptoms should act as if they’re positive, epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina said Thursday.
“The important thing is, when you feel symptoms, assume you’re positive at this point, especially with Omicron being so prevalent,” Mina said in an interview with eMed, where he is chief science officer. “Assume you’re positive, assume you’re infectious, and wait a day or two before taking that test, because it might be a day before the test turns positive. It might be two days.”
“The FDA has noted safety concerns regarding self-collection of throat swabs, as they are more complicated than nasal swabs — and if used incorrectly, can cause harm to the patient,” an FDA spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. “The CDC recommends that throat swabs be collected by a trained healthcare provider.”
CNN’s Katherine Dillinger, Michael Nedelman, Virginia Langmaid, Naomi Thomas, Deidre McPhillips, John Bonifield, Jamie Gumbrecht, Michelle Watson, Paradise Afshar and Sylvia Walker contributed to this report.
