Houston surpasses 300,000 COVID cases as omicron brings yet another surge

Houston has surpassed 300,000 COVID-19 cases, just days after the highly contagious omicron variant leapfrogged delta to become the dominant viral strain circulating in the region and around the United States. The staggering milestone reached Thursday, when the Houston Health Department reported 2,397 new cases for a cumulative total of 302,460, underscores the virus’ ability to evade all attempts at containment nearly two years into a pandemic few predicted would be this persistent or deadly. “Twenty-one months ago I never imagined our cases would get anywhere close to this big,” said Dr. David Persse, the city’s chief medical officer. “If you had told me 300,000, I would have politely told you, ‘I think you’re crazy.’” COVID HELP DESK: Which vaccine offers the best protection against omicron? Yet the easily transmitted omicron variant, first detected last month in South Africa, appears poised to sweep the Houston area and is already fueling outbreaks and scuttling holiday plans across the region. “The timing is just terrible,” said Dr. Randall Olsen, medical director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at Houston Methodist Hospital, where the emergency department and hospital beds were filling up with new COVID patients Thursday afternoon. More than 90 percent of Houston Methodist’s symptomatic patients have the omicron variant, putting the new strain on track to eclipse delta by year’s end. And for the first time, more than half of those seeking COVID tests at the hospital are testing positive. While omicron does appear more likely to cause breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people with waning immunity, Olsen said all evidence suggests hospitalizations and deaths are still far more likely to occur among the unvaccinated, who make up about 40 percent of Houston’s population. “If people had gotten vaccinated, we wouldn’t be going through this,” Jonathan Harris said Thursday evening as he departed dinner with his husband at the River Oaks Shopping Center. Like many Houston residents, Harris is frustrated with the slow pace of vaccine uptake in Texas. As a gay man who survived the HIV-AIDS epidemic, he has already spent much of his life living in fear of a deadly viral menace and doesn’t understand those who are reluctant to take precautions against COVID. “I’m a point where I’m three-times vaccinated, I adhere to the rules, I eat outside, I wear a mask,” he said. “I can’t not live my life anymore.” It can be hard to conceptualize 300,000 unique infections. It is more than twice the population of Sugar Land and slightly less than that of Corpus Christi. And it is almost certainly an undercount, as many people are asymptomatic or don’t seek testing. To capture the real rate of infection, city health workers have visited Houston neighborhoods throughout the pandemic, collecting blood samples for antibody testing. They found between 20 and 25 percent of Houston residents — as many as 1 in 4 — carry the antibodies that indicate a previous COVID infection. Their findings put the city’s actual COVID case count closer to half a million people, Persse said. “It’s a lot of suffering,” the health director said. It’s a reality even veteran virologists didn’t see coming on Mar. 4, 2020, the day health officials learned a Fort Bend man, who had recently returned from an Egyptian river cruise, tested positive for COVID to become the first confirmed case in the Houston area. Epidemiologists later found dozens of people in Harris County whose COVID symptoms started as early as Feb. 10. - Houston restaurant closures are back as omicron wave approaches, with some already facing COVID outbreaks - 11 Texans players testing positive for COVID-19 ahead of Jaguars game - ‘Now you have all those superpowers’: Kid-friendly vaccine event offers shots in arms to protect against COVID - Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner says he has COVID-19, plans to isolate As of Thursday, 4,955 people have died of COVID in the nine-county Houston area, a scale of death on par with losing the entire population of Hunters Creek Village. “I never, never imagined it was going to last this long,” Olsen said. “Nor did I imagine we would have this many cases. I know that mutations can occur, but I didn’t anticipate mutations were going to be such a major factor in keeping the pandemic going.” On HoustonChronicle.com: Are Houston doctors canceling their holiday plans due to the omicron variant? We asked them. Fresh COVID surges abound: Harris County reported more than 2,800 new cases on Wednesday, the largest single-day tally since delta’s late-summer peak. On Monday, the day omicron overtook delta, Fort Bend County reported a spike of more than 1,150 new infections, putting it on par with the worst of last year’s post-holiday crush. Public health officials say omicron is almost certainly behind the recent surges. On Monday, Harris County reported the first omicron-related casualty — believed to be the first such death in the nation — in a 50-something year old man who officials say was not vaccinated. Early indications suggest omicron will hit hospitals hard and fast. COVID hospitalizations in the Houston region are already up 50 percent from a week ago. “I am really concerned about the burden our hospitals may face over next weeks and their ability to respond,” Persse said. The crush of infections has sent many scrambling for tests and booster shots ahead of the holiday. Pharmacies are struggling to keep COVID-19 home tests on their shelves. When Jacob Massoletti caught COVID two weeks ago, test appointments and rapid kits were plentiful. But on Thursday, the Montrose resident struck out in his search for a test that would enable him to attend Christmas festivities with his family. He’d searched online for tests within a 10-mile radius of his house. Finding nothing, he set out on his fixed-speed road bike to the nearest Walgreens. “They’re just wiped out,” he said. Massoletti planned to ask a family member living in Brazoria County to search for a test, thinking perhaps they would have better luck outside densely populated Houston. Still nursing a full-chested cough, he said he didn’t feel comfortable being around others until he could be certain he was recovered from a mild case that became “straight-up miserable” when he caught food poisoning midway through. “It was pretty wretched,” he said. Outside a nearby Kroger, Houston resident Varun Sablok said he was hoping to be tested in time for New Year’s revelry with friends. Now Sablok didn’t know if he’d be able to find any options. And with omicron’s ferocious speed of contagion, he was not optimistic about the turnaround time. “I might have caught it by the time I get my results back,” he said. nora.mishanec@chron.com twitter.com/nmishanec

Houston surpasses 300,000 COVID cases as omicron brings yet another surge

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