Louisiana is expected to pass the one-million mark in total COVID cases this week. Many are hoping the peak of the Omicron surge is near. Children younger than 18 represent 27-percent of all COVID cases reported on Friday and State Health Officer Doctor Joe Kanter says that’s a possible sign the peak could be near.
“This pattern where 18-to-29-year-olds starts out ahead and then gets overtaken by the below 18 (age group) that is a pattern that we’ve seen in prior surges,” said Kanter.
Kanter says based on what they’ve seen in other parts of the world, Omicron rages and then fades away almost as fast as it arrived.
“And that’s been the experience in South Africa where it was fast on and fast off and that looks to be the experience in the U-K and in some of the northeastern states of the U-S if you squint you can convince yourself we are coming down on the other side right now,” said Kanter.
Kanter wishes he can provide an answer on when the Omicron peak will arrive, but there’s no good modeling to predict this.
“The numbers we are seeing now are in a different league from anything that we’ve seen before, and so we just don’t have any confidence in any model at least no model that I’ve seen,” said Kanter.
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