COVID-19 cases remain high throughout Wisconsin, and the emergence of new variants continues to concern state health officials. But in a media briefing Thursday, Dr. Ryan Westergaard, the Department of Health Services chief medical officer, expressed optimism for the months ahead.
Westergaard said that after the current surge in cases declines, new variants might continue to emerge. He confirmed the first cases of the omicron subvariant BA.2 in Wisconsin.
“I think both of these variants will continue to spread in the community until there are no susceptible people left. Right now there are still some people who are unvaccinated, or far enough from their vaccine that they are susceptible,” he explained.
Westergaard described how this scenario, in which people continue either to get the COVID-19 vaccine or contract the virus, could eventually lead to COVID-19 becoming endemic throughout the state.
“So the phrase endemic, as you say, meaning that we’ve sort of reached a steady state of transmission, I think that’s likely to happen during this next year. But the one thing we can’t predict, although many people think it’s a reasonably likely expectation, is that there will be additional variants in the future. That will change from a steady state to a spike that we’ve seen before,” he said.
The term endemic describes a disease that is a regular part of a population, such as the flu.“That’s what viruses do, they tend to evolve. You see the same things with influenza periodically if a new variant’s coming up," said Westergaard. "So I think the story is going to continue to be told.”
As the pandemic continues, Wisconsin is struggling with a current spike in COVID-19 cases. State Health Services Deputy Secretary Deb Standridge noted challenges faced by hospitals and residential care facilities.
“Although cases are declining, every county in Wisconsin is still experiencing critically high case activity and COVID-19 cases continue to impact our health care systems, with many hospitals experiencing staffing shortages.," she said. "Statewide, 92% of intensive care beds and 95% of intermediate care beds are currently in use.”
The seven-day average of cases were at 4,679 as of Thursday, compared to the 18,857 cases two weeks earlier.
