Task Force member: Omicron could result in 30,000 cases per day
Half the country could be infected with the corona virus by the end of January if the Omicron variant continues to spread at its current rate, says Richard Neher, an expert at the Swiss Covid-19 Science Task Force.
This content was posted on January 2, 2022 – 12:14 p.m.
Keystone-SDA / Swiss Media / ilj
In one (n Interview with the Sunday newspaperexternal link30,000 cases per day are “imaginable” in January, added Neher.
“20,000 cases per day in Switzerland and an estimated number of unreported cases mean that around 3% of the population are infected every week,” Neher told the newspaper. “If the virus continues to spread at this rate, it will quickly increase. In this scenario, half of the country could contract Corona within weeks. “
First data from Great Britain and South Africa show that Omicron’s courses are “a little milder than those of Delta,” said the professor and expert on virus evolution at the University of Basel. But even at Omicron, the number of hospital admissions is “not insignificant,” he added.
Restricting contacts helps so that measures can be taken at major events and where people without masks meet indoors, the professor said.
The number of new coronavirus cases topped 19,000 last Thursday when data was last released. On Friday, the government decided not to introduce any new pandemic measures for the time being after tightening restrictions on unvaccinated people on December 17.
Intensive care units
The new Swiss President Ignazio Cassis. his part said Sunday lookexternal link that the current goal was to avoid overloading the intensive care units. “Currently, around 80% utilization of intensive care units throughout Switzerland – half of them corona patients – is manageable,” says Cassis, who is also a doctor. Capacities could be increased if necessary, but this is not currently the case, he added. As in the first wave, cantons could help each other if necessary.
“We are ready to react at any time, including with federal measures such as civil protection and the army,” added Cassis.
Lukas Engelberger, President of the Conference of Cantonal Health Directors, described the next few days as “the key”. New data would be available by Wednesday that would help determine the course of the pandemic. If there was more pressure on the intensive care unit, the government would have to decide on new measures or at least consult measures with the cantons, he told the Sunday newspaper.
outlook
Meanwhile, the Vice President of the Science Task Force and hospital doctor Urs Karrer warned that Omicron should not be underestimated. “Our biggest concern at the moment is having to treat a large number of Covid-19 patients in January and February and at the same time having a staff shortage because they are sick, in isolation or in quarantine,” said Karrer said the NZZ on Sunday,external link
As for the outlook, Neher estimates that the worst of the Omicron wave could be over by the end of January. At some point the virus will run out of hosts, as has been observed in some parts of South Africa. But the virus “won’t go away and will certainly keep us busy next winter,” he predicted, “but not to the point where it causes another crisis.”