SEATTLE, Wa. – Washington is seeing a steep decrease in COVID-19 cases in the western part of the state, according to State Epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist, “This is what I affectionately call light at the end of the tunnel…that light at the end of the tunnel could be a train coming…but it is all very promising.”
He says hospitalizations are typically about a week behind cases, so while they appear to be stalling, he expects a dramatic drop to come.
And he doesn’t expect any new variants to derail the drops.
But, there is a caveat to the good news.
Dr. Lindquist says he expects virus-related deaths to increase and the entire state isn’t seeing the same curve, “Western Washington is different than Eastern Washington in both our cases and hospitalizations. So we will likely see a lag in Eastern Washington.”
We are hopeful there is some good news that we’re starting to see when it comes to the trajectory of cases of Omicron, not just here in Washington but across the nation. The numbers have started to level off from what we were seeing over the holidays and January. — Office of Dr. Umair A. Shah, WA Sec of Health (@WaHealthSec) February 2, 2022
We are hopeful there is some good news that we’re starting to see when it comes to the trajectory of cases of Omicron, not just here in Washington but across the nation.
The numbers have started to level off from what we were seeing over the holidays and January.
— Office of Dr. Umair A. Shah, WA Sec of Health (@WaHealthSec) February 2, 2022