INDIANAPOLIS — Questions over the Omicron COVID-19 variant continue to mount as COVID-19 cases surge across the nation.
WRTV spoke with Dr. Brian Dixon, director of public health informatics with the Regenstrief Institute to learn what this means for Hoosiers.
WRTV: "What are we seeing omicron-wise here in Central Indiana and Indiana in general?"
Dixon: “What we're seeing so far with Omicron is that is quickly becoming the dominant strain of the disease in new cases. Sort of went from at the beginning of the month, like 1% of cases or less than 1% of cases, now, all the way up to we think about half of new cases or higher are due to the Omicron variant.”
WRTV: "Indiana has at least one confirmed Omicron case in the state, how many more can we assume we have since that positive test came from earlier?"
Dixon: “Since that case was several weeks ago, I would expect we probably now have several hundred cases of Omicron in the state, and they're probably in multiple parts of the state, although many of them are going to be in our urban areas.”
Dixon expects the number of omicron cases to dramatically rise in the next several weeks across Indiana. Right now, there are about 3,000 Hoosiers in Indiana hospitals and Dixon said projections increase that number to 4,000-5,000 by early January. It is something, he said, the state has never seen.
Watch the video in the player above for more on WRTV's conversation with Dixon.
