CONCORD, N.H. (WHDH) - Officials in New Hampshire are urging residents to be vigilant as the state begins to see a massive spike in new COVID-19 infections fueled by the omicron variant.
“We’re in the very beginning of the omicron surge,” state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said during a news conference on Wednesday. “It’s just in the last week or two that we’ve really seen infections transition from predominantly delta to now almost solely omicron. That’s what we believe is leading to this dramatic surge we’re seeing in cases.”
Granite State health officials on Wednesday reported 20,458 active COVID-19 cases, marking a more than 50 percent increase over the previous two-week span, data showed. There were also 415 hospitalizations reported.
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Gov. Chris Sununu said that he’s hopeful hospitalizations will remain low, citing studies that have shown omicron is less severe than the delta variant.
“Like the rest of the country, we are likely to see more cases than we’ve ever seen,” Sununu said. “It’s nothing that’s likely to go away in the next week or two. This is part of the winter surge.”
Sununu also encouraged all residents to get vaccinated and boosted.
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