It’s too soon to tell what impact the omicron variant of COVID-19 will have here in Maine, but state Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah said if omicron does come to dominate here, one likely impact would be more people in the hospital.
“More strain on the health care system does no one any good,” he said during a weekly virtual press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
In a recap of daily COVID-19 data, Shah noted that hospitalization numbers have dropped since peaking last Tuesday. There are 331 people hospitalized in Maine with COVID-19. Of those, 109 are in intensive care and 53 are on ventilators.
Despite the improvement, Shah said overall hospitalization numbers remain high, and likened the small improvements to someone with a high fever improving by only a single degree.
“This is an easing of our hospital rates, but it is not a sign that COVID is easing,” Shah told reporters.
Shah said state health officials are tracking the progress of the omicron variant by sending weekly samples out of state for testing on Fridays. Shah noted that confirming a diagnosis of COVID-19 is much easier than the testing required to break down a virus to determine the variant.
As of last week, Shah said, omicron represented 2.2% of samples tested from Maine, but the speed at which the variant spreads means that figure is likely already out of date.
“That number is undoubtedly higher (now),” he said.
Shah acknowledged that the omicron variant has spread fast enough in some parts of the world to challenge delta as the dominant strain, but said right now it’s too early to determine whether that will be the case here in Maine.
Even if it does become dominant, and its symptoms do prove to be milder, as has been reported in some parts of the world, Shah said the speed it spreads will still lead to a higher volume of infections in Maine.
“In numerical terms, that can translate into more people needing intensive care,” he said.