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Omicron Cases Are Hitting Highs, But New Data Puts End in Sight

Data suggest hospitalizations are now decoupled from case numbers, and the variant causes less severe disease

A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 swab test in Longmont, Colorado.

A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 swab test in Longmont, Colorado.

Photographer: Chet Strange/Bloomberg

A string of new studies has confirmed the silver lining of the omicron variant: Even as case numbers soar to records, the numbers of severe cases and hospitalizations have not. The data, some scientists say, signal a new, less worrying chapter of the pandemic.

“We’re now in a totally different phase,” said Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “The virus is always going to be with us, but my hope is this variant causes so much immunity that it will quell the pandemic.”