The omicron variant is pushing Arizona's COVID-19 case numbers up faster than at any other time in the pandemic, placing enormous pressure on the state's health care system.
Evidence so far suggests omicron infections tend to be less severe than those caused by earlier strains. Even so, Dr. Michael White of Valleywise Health said Arizona hospitals have never been under greater strain. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, he said the surge "consumes a number of resources" and complicates other health care, adding to the risk of overwhelming the system.
White urged residents to keep taking precautions, including getting vaccinated, getting a booster and wearing high-quality masks indoors. He noted that breakthrough infections have become more common with omicron, but the vast majority of COVID-19 patients in his hospital are unvaccinated.
Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, described how quickly the numbers are climbing. "Day over day, not only is it increasing, but it's increasing by relatively large chunks, so it's going up and it's going up fast," he said.
The official figures also understate the true picture. Results from at-home rapid antigen tests do not enter the state's tally, so many infections go uncounted. The problem is greater with omicron, which these tests, when people can get them, often fail to detect. LaBaer said the tests have "a very high false-negative rate," meaning a person may be told they are not infected when they actually are.
Vaccines and boosters are also less effective at preventing omicron infections than they were against earlier versions of the virus. LaBaer said, however, that they still reduce the severity of illness and lower the risk of death.
That protection comes with a sobering caveat. LaBaer said omicron is causing "anywhere between threefold to fourfold more cases" than earlier strains. "So even if there is a 50% reduction in hospitalization, with fourfold more cases, there are still going to be way more cases ending up in the hospital," he said. "And that's something that we really have to pay attention to."
LaBaer recommends combining vaccination and boosters with the traditional coronavirus precautions that health officials have promoted throughout the pandemic.
