'A rosier perspective': Louisville health expert says omicron COVID cases may have peaked

Sarah Ladd, Louisville Courier Journal
·2 min read
Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage has overseen the Covid-19 vaccine rollout throughout the city, including at the American World Center in South Louisville. Translators and transportation to the vaccine centers has helped those with limited means or possible language barrier. There's also around 15 mobile events throughout the week as well that Dr. Hartlage's staff operate.

A Louisville health official says cases of COVID-19 fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant may have peaked.

The city has seen a significant drop in cases over the last seven days when compared to the week before. The case totals were around 14,000 over the past week, down from 16,000 the prior week.

"It does appear that we've crested the case count wave for this omicron variant," said Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage, the associate medical director for the health department.

She cautioned, however, that the nature of omicron is that the city will see just as many cases on the decline as it did on the incline.

Louisville's cases by week as of Jan. 25, 2022.
Louisville's cases by week as of Jan. 25, 2022.

Louisville's rate of positive cases is 32%, just below the state's rate of 33%.

"We're having a little bit of a rosier perspective this week," Hartlage said. But, "our numbers are still very high."

The city's case count is still more than 10 times higher than the threshold for the red-alert status, at 265 cases per 100,000 people.

COVID news: Louisville volunteer has vaccinated people, debunked COVID-19 myths for more than a year

The city has 490 people hospitalized with COVID-19, Hartlage said, with 80 people in intensive care units.

Meanwhile, Kentucky reported 15,305 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday afternoon, as well as 23 new deaths and 2,397 hospitalizations. The total case number is up from Monday's total of 3,912, and the weekend's totals of 11,648 and 13,797 on Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, the state set a new record of 16,130 daily cases.

"We've got to be humble to this virus," Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said. "We've certainly learned that over the years, and we never want to forget that."

South Africa, whose experts first identified the omicron variant in November, saw a steep rise in variant-driven cases counts, and a matching steep decline, New York Times data show. And now, some U.S. states appear to be peaking with omicron cases on the decline, The Times reported Saturday.

The first U.S. case of omicron was announced on Dec. 1.

Reach health reporter Sarah Ladd at sladd@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ladd_sarah.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville health expert says omicron cases may have peaked in city