Via The Los Angeles Times: Omicron 'going to get worse' as California hospitalizations up. Excerpt:
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in California over the weekend reached levels not seen in months as the rapid spread of the Omicron variant caused major airline interruptions and sent throngs of people to testing sites.
Officials said they expected Omicron’s spread to worsen in the coming weeks, with President Biden promising the federal government will do all it can to assist states facing surges in coronavirus cases. Biden acknowledged those who faced long waits for tests over the holiday and said his administration was seeking to alleviate the issue.
“Seeing how tough it was for folks to get a test this weekend shows we have more work to do,” Biden said, “and we’re doing it.”
There were 4,001 coronavirus patients hospitalized Sunday — California’s highest single-day total since Oct. 9 and a nearly 14% increase from last week.
Some areas are contending with even sharper rises. Los Angeles County has seen a 30% bump in COVID-19 hospitalizations since last week. In Orange County, the patient count has swelled nearly 45% during the same period.
Overall, the greater Southern California and Sacramento regions have posted a 20% jump in hospitalizations during the same span, while the San Francisco Bay Area has recorded a 13% increase.
Officials and experts have long noted that hospitalizations are a lagging indicator of coronavirus spread, usually rising about two weeks after increases in infections.
That’s a potentially worrisome trend, given that California is battling a significant new spike that officials say is driven by circulation of the Omicron variant, perhaps the most heavily mutated and highly transmissible edition of the coronavirus.
Over the last week, California reported an average of 11,914 new coronavirus cases per day, a 73% jump from two weeks ago, according to data compiled by The Times.
The surge has been especially profound in Los Angeles County, which announced more than 20,000 combined new cases Saturday and Sunday — an eye-popping total officials say is actually an undercount because of reporting lags over the Christmas weekend.
