Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19's alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically.
The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa.
Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, says omicron is "going to come down as fast as it went up."
Mokdad added that the worst may be behind us after daily infections hit 6 million on Jan. 6 in the U.S., the Associated Press reported.
According to Mokdad, daily cases could crest at 1.2 million by Jan. 19 and decrease suddenly "because everybody who could be infected will be infected,” the news outlet reported.
But experts warn that the future of the pandemic looks unclear because what is happening in the U.K. and U.S. isn't happening in other countries, the AP reported.
Hospitalizations are still nearing record levels, with approximately 146,000 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. as of late Tuesday morning.