TAMPA, Fla — Doctors say it's inevitable. COVID-19 cases in Florida are on the rise.
"This thing has just been going up like a rocket out of Cape Canaveral," Dr. Tom Unnasch with USF Public Health said.
Unnasch has been watching the forecast models for the virus closely. He says the estimated peak is on Feb. 2, 2022. The state will see nearly 110,000 cases daily.
"This is pretty much what I expected to see. I'm actually surprised that the number is so low because right now, we're averaging about 68,000 cases a day here in Florida. So, 100,000 is not even a single doubling," Unnasch said.
Case numbers will likely be higher and the peak could come sooner.
Dr. Unnasch says two things are driving Florida's latest surge, omicron can infect those who have been vaccinated, and anyone who gets it has the power to infect 10 people instead of five as we saw with the delta variant.
"You can see how it just really can explode because it's at a level of infectiousness that's somewhere now better than Chickenpox. It's probably among the most infectious viruses we've ever seen," Unnasch said.
But like their sharp increase, doctors expect cases will downslide quickly.
"It's going to come down as quickly as it went up. By mid-February, you know, by Valentine's Day, we're going to be at the back end of this thing and things are going to be looking a lot better," Unnasch said.
In the meantime, tens of thousands will get sick over the next few weeks and hospitalizations will rise.
"Hang in there, wear the mask, do what you can to try and keep it from transmitting to other people or to yourself. In four weeks, this is going to be passed again and we'll be back down in the cases we'll be back down and we'll start to be able to resume our normal lives again," Unnasch said.