Health officials fear Omicron variant in Imperial County
Imperial County braces for possible post holiday COVID-19 surge - News 11's Wiley Jawhary reports
EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - Imperial Valley Health experts are getting ready for a potential surge of COVID-19 cases after the holidays.
The Imperial County Public Health Department (ICPHD) says numbers are already going up after the holidays.
Health officials also believe the Omicron variant is already in Imperial County.
The holidays are coming to an end but now Dr. Stephen Munday, with the Imperial County Public Health Department, says a potential surge may be brewing.
"Not surprisingly, since we literally just got through two holiday weekends and with Omicron and Delta surge, our cases are up," he said.
The ICPHD says there are 729 active cases of COVID-19 across the Valley.
Health officials are still tallying up cases of COVID-19 after Christmas and New Year's.
Meanwhile, schools are also on edge as students return to the classroom after winter break.
Richard Rundhaug, the Brawley Elementary School District superintendent says they are keeping an eye out for a potential outbreak in classrooms.
“That is what we are waiting for right now, to see whether or not that surge does take place at our schools, if it does we will maintain some of the safety practices that we have for a while,” he said.
Richard Rundhaug says the Brawley Elementary School District is doing everything it can to avoid another post-holiday surge.
Some teachers have been voicing their concerns to the district that the shields on students' desks are affecting their learning.
"If anything impedes instruction at this point, we want to look at it more seriously," Rundhaug said.
The district says it hopes to remove those shields if a post-holiday surge doesn’t happen, but health officials say numbers are going up and the omicron variant is feared to already be in the Valley.
"Even though we haven’t detected the Omicron variant yet, we believe it’s already here," he said.
Dr. Munday says the state is backed up on relating data to the local health department.
"Unfortunately the state is really behind because of this huge surge so we haven’t yet received sequencing back that can confirm cases in Imperial," he said.
