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Jan 15, 2022 2 mins, 43 secs

To track coronavirus cases in Sonoma County, across California, the United States and around the world, go here.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates tweeted this week that once omicron subsides, “the rest of the year should see far fewer cases so Covid can be treated more like seasonal flu.”.

Closer to home, Ukiah emergency room physician Drew Colfax called omicron “a knight in shining armor” that will mark the end of the pandemic after a “sharp and potentially painful” surge in cases.

But despite the optimism, infectious disease and public health experts say it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and it’s too early to say whether omicron represents the last gasp of COVID-19 and declare that we’re nearing the end of the pandemic.

What’s more, even though omicron reportedly causes less severe illness, a small sliver of omicron’s tidal wave of infections — nearly 1,000 a day in Sonoma County — has the potential to overwhelm local hospitals and health care providers.

During press briefing Thursday, Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, said that omicron poses a “math problem” when assessing its impact on the health care system.

Coyle said that last winter, the number of patients in hospitals across the state peaked at 54,000 on any given day, with about 40% or 22,000 being COVID-19 patients.

9, the omicron surge caused fewer deaths than previous COVID-19 waves, and hospitalizations have remained low, the WHO said.

With omicron seemingly causing less severe illness and offering protection against the deadlier delta strain, many have started to regard omicron as a sort of godsend, particularly those who are weary of public health measures.

Last year, the winter surge in Sonoma County started around mid-November, about two months earlier than this year.

Rising infection and hospitalization rates in Sonoma County prompted the latest public health order, which bans large public gatherings of 50 people or more indoors and 100 or more outdoors.

That distinction has given rise to the term “incidental COVID-19.” This week, county public health officials released the latest data on those hospitalized for COVID-19 and those with it8

The county said the share of COVID-19 patients who incidentally test positive is increasing.

The share of patients who enter the hospital for COVID-19 illness has declined from 95% in late October to 68% earlier this month, according to public health analysis using a three-week rolling average.

But public health and hospital officials said the number of COVID-19 patients, incidental or not, is an important indicator for hospital bed capacity.

Kathryn Pack, health program manager for the county’s epidemiology team, said COVID-19 patients sometimes cannot be discharged or transferred to other facilities because of their coronavirus status.

SRCH, the largest of about a half-dozen federally supported health centers in Sonoma County, serves roughly 40,000 patients.

As with many other health care providers, the omicron surge has whittled away at SRCH’s staffing levels, which are down 25%, she said.

Krilich said that Providence recently did a systemwide analysis of its COVID-19 patients across all 50 of its hospitals to better understand the number of patients admitted for COVID-19 vs.

“When you compare it to the previous surge, we have today less patients who are in the hospital and have COVID that are being treated for COVID,” he said.

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