ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — The new year is coming and doctors have a warning about the pandemic.
"I predict by mid-January it's going to be much worse," said Dr. John Sinnott, the University of South Florida Health chairman of internal medicine and Tampa General Hospital epidemiologist.
Sinnott said the highly contagious omicron variant will spread even further due to holiday gatherings. He said that will cause further strain on already overwhelmed hospitals and healthcare systems.
On Sunday, the nation's infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also said cases will increase even further during an interview on ABC's "This Week."
"Every day it goes up and up," Fauci said. "The last weekly average was about 150,000 and it likely will go much higher."
Tampa General Hospital states it's working to ensure enough supplies and staff will be available, while the Florida Hospital Association says it's confident hospitals will be ready after successfully fighting off the recent delta surge.
The daily case count in Florida broke a new record, according to a report from the state Department of Health on Christmas Eve.
"This is catastrophic to our population," Sinnott said.
Between Dec. 3 and 17, infections in Hillsborough County went up 507 percent, according to data compiled by Dr. Jason Salemi, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida.
The data compiles information from the state DOH, the CDC and HHS.
The data also showed counties including Dade, Broward and Palm Beach had cases go up more than 1,000 percent within the same two-week period. While the state's seven-day average on cases rose 956 percent, according to the data.
Hospitalizations from COVID-19 in Florida are not near the same level as the summer and early fall, but with omicron here, doctors fear it won't stay that way.
That's why health experts are urging vaccinations and boosters, along with other mitigation measures like masking and social distancing.
"I look at it as a responsibility to my family," Sinnott said. "It's going to go on a while longer. There is no magic bullet."
Sinnott said health experts are also keeping an eye on the severity of infection from omicron, along with the ability to have enough supplies to test people and enough authorized pills to treat them for an infection.