TAMPA, Fla. — Health officials are predicting an incoming COVID-19 surge.
“The bad news is that test positively is up, hospitalizations are up, and emergency department is up, visits, I mean,” said Dr. Jill Roberts, associate professor for the USF College of Public Health.
The CDC’s latest models show an upcoming rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations going through the end of the year.
This comes as a new variant, JN.1, is picking up steam and spreading quickly.
The CDC has reported more than a 25% increase in deaths this past week.
While numbers are going up, officials said it’s been worse in past years.
“We’re not where we were with delta and things like that; this is an omicron spin-off strain, relatively mild,” said Roberts.
“Of course for people who are at risk, people who have other underlying conditions, and people who are like me who are older than 65, are definitely at a greater risk of hospitalization,” said public health expert and researcher Dr. Tom Unnasch.
Health officials believe the uptick they’re seeing right now started after Thanksgiving and will get worse as gatherings and traveling continue through the holiday season.
“A whole lot of people reported getting sick following their Thanksgiving vacations, and then, of course, those people then spread it to their contacts, and so you kind of see this thing go on,” said Roberts.
“Once that starts, it doesn’t stop because you just get everyone that was traveling spread it to new people and on and on and on,” she added.
Experts expect in the next few weeks we’ll see one of the biggest waves we’ve seen this year.
“A lot of this is driven by the amount of contact, close contact that people have with one another. Let’s face it: this time of the year, people are going to parties, people are going to concerts, people are getting together with large family groupings for the holidays, and all of those things together give a pretty good chance for these viruses to jump around,” said Unnasch.
Officials expect numbers to peak at the end of the month, going into January.
“I think we’re going to see over the next several years or so that this going to be just one more of those season things that’s going to be coming around,” said Unnasch.
“Flu goes up this time of the year all the time, colds go up this time of the year all the time, and COVID is just going to follow that same pattern. This is going to be with us for the rest of humanity’s life on this planet, I’m afraid,” he added.
Doctors encourage people to get tested before seeing older family members and people who are immunocompromised this holiday season.
“I’m not overly surprised to see us peaking up at this time. I just don’t see a scenario where it goes back down real quick because we keep doing the behaviors we were doing that caused peak,” said Roberts.