Omicron Still Hasn't Peaked In Arizona: Head Of Banner Health

PHOENIX, AZ — The waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have been difficult to forecast, but Dr. Marjorie Bessel, Banner Health's chief clinical officer, believes that the omicron variant still hasn't hit its peak in Arizona.

This prediction from Bessel during a Tuesday press conference came as case counts continued to soar in Arizona. She estimated that omicron would peak "in the coming weeks."

Arizona has hit a record for the most positive test samples collected in a single day, with 18,217 positive test samples collected on Jan. 5, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Out of that total, 12,721 positive cases were in Maricopa County and 2,212 were in Pima County.

Those numbers are record highs for both counties since the start of the pandemic. As of Monday, 2,869 patients across Arizona were hospitalized for COVID-19, with 650 in intensive care units, according to the state health department. That's the largest number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the state since the end of the last peak around a year ago, but nowhere near the numbers reached during that peak when hospitalizations hit a high of 5,082 on Jan. 11, 2021.

An increase in hospitalizations is expected in the coming weeks as omicron peaks, Bessel said.

Around 90 percent of Banner Health's sickest COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated, Bessel said. She encouraged locals to get vaccinated if they haven't been, to get their booster if they're eligible and to wear a well-fitting surgical or N95 mask.

She added that Banner's hospitals and urgent care facilities remain busy and emergency rooms are crowded, even ahead of omicron's peak.

Dignity Health announced last week that it would allow some employees who tested positive for COVID-19 but had mild or no symptoms to continue working without a quarantine period.

Banner Health recently changed its quarantine requirement for staff to align with new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, issued at the end of December. The new protocol allows for employees with mild or no symptoms to return to work five days after a positive test.

Bessel said that she was aware that other health systems locally and across the country had adjusted their staffing quarantine periods to ensure their facilities were adequately staffed.

With COVID-19 surging "at an exponential rate" Bessel said that Banner will continue to evaluate its return-to-work and quarantine requirements on a day-to-day basis and will make adjustments if needed. She did not rule out nixing the quarantine period for Banner employees.

Banner Health operates multiple hospitals and other health care facilities across the Phoenix metro area and in Tucson.