Omicron's rapid spread puts Missouri on track for COVID cases 'worse...than it has ever been'
Missouri’s two largest counties will continue their efforts to overturn a court ruling that severely limits the powers of local health departments at the same time health officials warn the omicron variant will bring thousands of new COVID-19 cases.
Missouri reported almost 10,000 new coronavirus infections Monday, making December the second-worst month of the pandemic this year. Only January had more cases. The Monday report was an accumulation of four days of test results because the Department of Health and Senior Services did not report over Christmas weekend.
Daily average cases are at levels not seen since January, before vaccines became widely available.
The state health department, in a news release, reported the omicron variant was found in samples from 32 wastewater facilities last week, up from two just two weeks ago.
“I am expecting it to be worse in the next few weeks than it has ever been during the pandemic in terms of cases per day,” Marc Johnson, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri, told the Independent.
Read more: https://missouriindependent.com/2021/12/27/omicrons-rapid-spread-puts-missouri-on-track-for-covid-cases-worse-than-it-has-ever-been/