CDC now says somewhere around 59% of the cases are Omicron.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that their estimate of Omicron cases in the US, admitting now that the variant probably accounted for about 59 percent of COVID-19 infections as of Christmas Day — much lower than the the 73 percent previously reported.
The CDC also drastically lowered its estimate for the week before Christmas, reporting that the variant accounted for just 22.5 percent of all infections as of Dec. 18. That is much lower than the previously reported estimate that Omicron accounted for 73.2 percent of cases that week.
A spokesperson for the beleaguered agency said “There was a wide predictive interval posted in last week’s chart, in part because of the speed at which Omicron was increasing. “We had more data come in from that timeframe and there was a reduced proportion of Omicron. “It’s important to note that we’re still seeing steady increase in the proportion of Omicron”
“Setting aside the question of how the initial estimate was so inaccurate, if CDC’s new estimate of Omicron prevalence is precise then it suggests that a good portion of the current hospitalizations we’re seeing from Covid may still be driven by Delta infections,” former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb tweeted Tuesday.
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