TYLER, Texas — Major entertainment and sporting events are seeing cancellations. Hospitals in the U.S. are starting to become overwhelmed. Some states have imposed indoor mask mandates.
Familiar headlines from across the United States show the omicron variant is causing a COVID-19 surge as it sweeps the nation, but what is the outlook for East Texas?
One local health official said a surge is possible, and that residents should assume the omicron variant has already made its way into East Texas.
"We do expect to see case counts increase due to holiday travel and the fact that omicron is circulating in Texas, and now accounts for the majority of new cases in the U.S.," said UT Health East Texas’ Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tom Cummins. Current data shows 621 active cases in Smith County and 179 active cases in Gregg County, according to the Northeast Public Health District.
Cummins said a sharp, sudden rise in positive cases will be the first clue in the omicron variant present within the community.
“We’re only seeing a little bit of a bump, but not on the level that we’ve seen in other parts of the country,” Cummins said.
Nationwide, the variant is causing issues across the country that were seen in the early days of the pandemic. According to the LA Times, infections and hospital admissions in Michigan are close to the highest they've been since the spring. In Louisiana, NOLA.com reported a weekly total of 5,667 new cases, nearly triple the weekly rate a month ago.
Read more from our newspaper partners, the Tyler Morning Telegraph.
