MACON, Ga. — Wave number five, this time led by the omicron variant, has hospitals, urgent cares and ICUs across Central Georgia preparing for the worst.
"We're asking our staff and patients -- especially patients in the community -- to get vaccinated. We're asking our staff to get boosters. We’re practicing the 3 Ws: Wash your hands, wear your masks, watch your distance," said Piedmont Macon chief operating officer, Scott Strong.
Strong says they’re taking precautions.
"We’re also moving back to our strict adherence to personal protective equipment. We’ve stopped all in-person meetings and gone back to limiting those things as much as possible and doing them where we have to," he said.
According to health officials, the omicron variant has milder symptoms than previous variants, but is more contagious for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
Scott says they’ve seen a spike in cases, but so far it hasn’t resulted in an increase of hospitalizations.
“We've seen a similar pattern in terms of the spike of the percent positive cases. The only difference at this current moment is that we haven’t seen a lot of those folks presenting with symptoms become admissions," he said.
It could come when an expected peak hits in February 2022.
"We do anticipate based on what we've seen so far and our projection models that the peak should occur around the 1st or second week of February. Right now that pattern based on the previous surge looks very similar, so we expect admissions to change," he said.
For now, Strong is encouraging people to get vaccinated, mask up, and spend the holidays in small groups.
To help reduce the spread, both Piedmont Macon hospitals updated their visitation policy. Previously, each patient could have two visitors at a time, but that is now reduced to one.