GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — With both Christmas and New Year’s happening just weeks after each other, doctors are now warning there could be some after-effects from the gatherings.
We’ve seen the spread of the omicron variant take the world by storm and with all of the parties and celebrations, well officials expect it to get much worse. New Year’s Eve saw a record high number of cases for the state of North Carolina sitting at 19,174 positive covid tests.
Now, officials at Vidant Health say they can’t be sure what’s to come this new year, but things aren’t looking good.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at all, I hope I’m wrong, but practically I wouldn’t be surprised if we see cases continuing to rise through the New Year,” said Dr. T Ryan Gallaher, medical director of Vidant’s Infectious Disease Department.
Gallaher also mentioned the incubation period of this variant is shorter, so we may begin to see omicron cases from New Year’s celebrations popping up anytime now.
“With omicron we are seeing actually a shorter incubation period which means the time you get exposed to the time you get infected,” said Gallaher.
Gallaher, along with other specialists like Dr. Anthony Fauci, say big gatherings like those seen on New Year’s can prove to spread this virus. Doctors still recommend vaccines, as most of the in-patient cases and hospitalizations at Vidant right now are from unvaccinated individuals.
