CDC Nowcast: 73% of New Cases Likely Omicron

 

#16,434

The CDC has updated their COVID Nowcast (1 day earlier than expected), and it shows a remarkable increase (from a revised upwards from 2.9% to  12.6%) last week to more than 73% of new cases now due to the Omicron variant this week.   

While a sizable jump in cases was expected, I don't think anyone was expecting the big of a leap. These are, however, projections - not actual counts - and could be adjusted (up or down) over time. 

Equally surprising is how pervasive Omicron has become across the nation, rising rapidly in regions (#10, #6, #4 and #5) that a week ago were thought to have little activity. 

Updated 1900 hrs: Nowcast has updated it graphics again, since I posted this blog. 

The apparent disparity between zones may be due to testing and reporting differences.  That may have also affected initial estimates of Omicron's arrival and spread. 

Assuming these latest figures are reasonably accurate, Omicron has done in a matter of 2 or 3 weeks what took the Delta variant 2 or 3 months to do last spring and summer. 

So far, I haven't seen any official reaction to this news.  Tomorrow should be an interesting day.