Texas very likely to see another massive Covid-19 surge in the upcoming period, state chief epidemiologist says

Texas – The Covid-19 number of new cases is on the rise recently and this seems to be nothing but a start of yet another Covid-19 wave, experts in multiple occasions said.

The situation with the pandemic is very similar in almost every single state across the country as we are approaching the holiday season.

Most of the cases so far are Delta variant cases, but with the fast-spreading Omicron variant that already was confirmed in two dozen states things might get much worse in the upcoming period.

The state’s chief epidemiologist said all the ingredients are getting into place for another COVID-19 surge, fueled by the omicron variant.

In North Texas, both the number of cases and positivity rate are on the rise in the last couple of weeks meaning that will results in even higher numbers in the upcoming period.

Just like numerous other health experts, Texas Chief State Epidemiologist Jennifer Shuford believes that the number of Omicron cases across Texas is way higher compared to the official numbers. Shuford says it’s because majority of the Omicron cases haven’t been detected yet.

She also joined the list of health officials urging people to get vaccinated before the holidays. Those who are not vaccinated are urged to get the first shot before the holiday family gatherings, while those fully vaccinated, are highly advised to get the booster dose of the vaccine.

In addition, she says there are two other things that should be done for the holidays if we want to slow down the spread of the virus and avoid last year’s Covid-19 scenario. Shuford advise Texans to test themselves before the holiday gatherings and wear face masks during the events.

“I’m afraid we have a variant that’s spreading rapidly through the rest of the world, and we have evidence that it’s spreading rapidly through Texas,” Shuford said.

Although the number of deaths and hospitalizations are not surging yet, she believes that this will start to happen very soon. She described the current Covid-19 situation in Texas like “here we go again.”

“This omicron variant is spreading even faster than delta did,” she added.

New daily COVID cases in Dallas County are up by about 100, compared to this time last month.

Tarrant County is also seeing a slight increase in new cases.

The DFW Hospital Council reported nearly 200 more people are in hospitals, compared to just two weeks ago.

“We think, in the next couple of weeks, we will see how this is going to play out in Texas and other places,” Shuford said.

Testing is also ramping up.

“Our numbers of COVID testing have increased quite a bit,” Shuford added.

According to the recent data, the positivity rate few weeks ago was around 4%. Now the overall positivity data in North Texas is 20%.