COVID: There are signs omicron is about to crest in Bay Area. One is in our wastewater - Pacifica Tribune

Along with modeling at the University of Washington that has proven to be spot-on about the pandemic’s trajectory, and experiences in other states and countries, it suggests the omicron wave is cresting and about to come down in Northern California and across the country.

Alexandria Boehm, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University, which is also monitoring wastewater virus levels for several other counties, including San Mateo, Modesto, San Francisco, and Merced, said she’s seeing similar peaking trends in Sacramento.

Health experts have been expecting, based on last winter’s experience and the trajectory of omicron outbreaks overseas, that this winter’s surge would peak and subside quickly.

In the United Kingdom, government data show new COVID-19 daily cases dropped to about 140,000 in the last week, after soaring to more than 200,000 earlier this month.

South Africa, where the omicron variant first emerged in November, already has seen cases peak and fall.

25 at 273,000 and daily COVID-19 deaths Jan.

For California, the IHME model predicts daily cases will peak at 135,750 by Jan.

30 and daily COVID-19 deaths topping out at 150 by Feb.

California health data show the seven-day average of daily cases reaching 79,610 as of Thursday, with 12,927 hospitalizations statewide and an average of 46 daily deaths from the virus.

That’s up from 36,282 average daily cases, 8,671 statewide hospitalizations and 44 average daily deaths a week earlier.

Boehm said that while the unprecedented levels of virus levels in Santa Clara County wastewater over the last month have since “leveled off or in some cases gone down,” there is still cause for concern:.