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 "The only difficulty is that if you have so many cases, even if the
rate of hospitalization is lower with Omicron than it is with Delta,
there is still the danger that you will have a surging of
hospitalizations that might stress the healthcare system," Fauci
said in an interview on Sunday with CNN.
The Omicron variant was estimated to be 58.6% of the coronavirus
variants circulating in the United States as of Dec. 25, according
to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC).
The sudden arrival of Omicron has brought record-setting case counts
to countries around the world and dampened New Year festivities
around the world..
"There will certainly be a lot more cases because this is a much
more transmissible virus than Delta is," Fauci said on CNN.
However, "It looks, in fact, that it (Omicron) might be less severe,
at least from data that we've gathered from South Africa, from the
UK and even some from preliminary data from here in the United
States," Fauci said.
Fauci added that the CDC will soon be coming out with a
clarification on whether people with COVID-19 should test negative
to leave isolation, after confusion last week over guidance that
would let people leave after five days without symptoms.
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 The CDC had reduced the
recommended isolation period for people with
asymptomatic COVID to five days, down from 10.
The policy does not require testing to confirm
that a person is no longer infectious before
they go back to work or socialize, causing some
experts to raise questions.
"You're right. There has been some concern about
why we don't ask people at that five-day period
to get tested. That is something that is now
under consideration", Fauci told ABC News in a
separate interview on Sunday. "I think we're
going to be hearing more about that in the next
day or so from the CDC."
U.S. authorities registered at least 346,869 new
coronavirus on Saturday, according to a Reuters
tally. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 rose by
at least 377 to 828,562.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru;
Editing by Daniel Wallis and Mark Porter)
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