UVA Health infectious disease expert analyzes holiday COVID-19 wave

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Doctors at UVA Health have been preparing for a spike in COVID-19 cases following holiday gatherings, but so far, experts say the levels of transmission are not as high as they were anticipating.

Doctor Bill Petri says there are 19 patients in the medical center with COVID as of Friday, with 4 of them in the ICU. Dr. Petri says these numbers are much lower than last year’s. There is still time for another surge after New Year’s gatherings, too.

“We saw a bump like right around Thanksgiving, and everyone was worried that we would have see this year what happened last year. So far, that hasn’t happened. It comes to reason that we are going to see another peak and another peak in the pandemic, and I don’t see anything that’s going to prevent that,” Dr. Petri said.

Dr. Petri says the downside is that COVID is still at epidemic levels, and flu levels have yet to peak.

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