In the shadow of omicron
dallasvoice.comCars line up along Lemmon at the COVID testing site. (David Taffet/DallasVoice) Some bars are closing temporarily, but doctors believe this variant should peak sometime this month DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writertaffet@dallasvoice.com Earlier this week, the positivity rate for the coronavirus was 33 percent in Texas.
And that was expected to rise steadily over the next week. By Monday, Jan. 3, Texas had passed the 4.75 million cases mark. By the end of the week, the number of cases is projected to pass 5 million.
Nationally, 1 million new cases were reported on Tuesday. Hospitalizations, which were going down, have doubled in the past two weeks — and tripled among children.
But there is good news: Most of that increase comes from cases of the omicron variant. Information about omicron has been changing rapidly, but most studies have found it to be less virulent than previous strains and less likely to settle in the lungs.
