GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — For two years, COVID-19 dominated nearly every news cycle.
In the past few weeks, things have changed. News reports may not even mention the virus that changed so many lives, ending over 900,000 of them in the US alone and over 6 million worldwide. If they do, it might not be the same front-page, headline grabbing story it was as recently as January.
COVID-19 numbers in the state have dropped like a rock over the past several weeks. The state Department of Health Services reported a mere 55 cases on Sunday, the fewest in a single day since July 17. No deaths were reported.
Dr. Michael Landrum, an infectious disease specialist with Bellin Health, says that even though mask requirements and recommendations are changing and even falling away entirely across the country, that doesn’t mean the pandemic is over.
“Here in the United States, and particularly here is Wisconsin, our numbers are much, much better,” Landrum told WTAQ. “But elsewhere in the world they’re still struggling to contain this.”
There are currently serious outbreaks in China, all of the same Omicron variant that has already ran it’s course in the United States.
Landrum says we’ve seen cases drop before, but this time things are different.
“What’s different now is that there’s more immunity,” Landrum explained. “Whether that be from people being vaccinated or from prior infection.”
Surely enough, there has been no serious variant of concern reported since Omicron was detected in November of last year.
“It’s helped relieve some of the strain on the hospital staff, it’s also relieved the strain on the clinics because there are fewer patients testing positive,” Landrum said of the lower case numbers.
Landrum says it’s still important for healthcare workers to be ready in case of another surge.
“It’s a sigh of relief,” Landrum said. “But not quite a victory lap yet.”
