MADISON, Wis. — With the holidays just around the corner, local health officials say taking extra precautions is vitally important to keep the rapidly spreading Omicron variant at bay.
On Monday, officials with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services issued a public health advisory urging Wisconsinites to take action to reduce the strain on the state’s health care systems, citing a surge in cases.
Monday afternoon, federal officials announced that the Omicron variant has taken over as the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S. The first case of Omicron was identified in the U.S. in early December.
Luckily, there’s an extra tool in the public health toolbelt that wasn’t widely available this time last year: vaccines. And while the antibody response provided by vaccines administered earlier this year has waned in recent months, booster shots can help bring the body’s response back up, according to a local infectious disease expert.
“The pandemic is ongoing, and these vaccine series often require multiple shots to get that antibody response up to where we want,” Dr. Dan Shirley, Interim Medical Director for Infection Prevention at UW Health, said. “From here we don’t know how long-lasting it’ll be, but there’s no reason to think that we need super frequent shots in the future, either.”
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When it comes to protecting yourself and others against COVID-19, there are still tried-and-true methods that have been proven to help reduce the spread of the virus, including avoiding enclosed gatherings.
Dr. Shirley said a mixed approach — including masking, social distancing, and being conscious of other guests’ vaccination and risk status — can make gathering possible, in spite of the virus’ increasing prevalence. Dr. Shirley said getting tested for COVID-19 before attending a gathering is a good way to make sure you’re not contributing to the virus’ spread.
“The number one point is we’re in a much better situation than a year ago,” Dr. Shirley said. “We have way more tools and information about how to do things, which does allow us a certain amount of flexibility of still having some things open and that type of thing.”
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Citing the concerning rise in cases and hospitalizations statewide, Dr. Shirley said getting vaccinated or boosted is an easy measure Wisconsinites can take to protect their neighbors.
“Now is absolutely the time,” Dr. Shirley said. “When cases are rising and our hospitals full throughout Wisconsin, this is a major thing that a person can do to decrease some of that pressure on our state.”
As of Monday afternoon, health care workers had administered more than 1,400,000 booster doses throughout the state. To date, 57.8% of Wisconsinites have completed their vaccination series, according to DHS data.
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