OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — COVID-19 hospitalizations in the metro are at the highest they've been during the pandemic and doctors say it could be a few more weeks before we start to see things slow down.
Dr. Renuga Vivekanandan, who serves as CHI Health's Chief of Infectious Diseases, spoke about the COVID surge led by the omicron variant and how cases of a new sub-variant are also being reported in the US.
On Wednesday, the Douglas County Health Department announced that two cases of the omicron "stealth" variant were detected in the county.
Doctors say it's still a little early to answer what symptoms are like with the sub-variant, but they are keeping a close eye on it.
"I'm getting asked a lot of questions, 'Is it mild? Is it severe?' Unfortunately, hard to answer right now about the BA.2 variant, more to come. But, we'll keep a close eye on the outcome as it's happening in Denmark and as we have more cases in the U.S.,” said Vivekanandan.
She added that good tools like PCR testing can be utilized, which can detect all of the variants. The Department of Health and Human Services has also partnered with CHI Health and Creighton University to use next-generation sequencing for tracking variants.
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