Louisville health officials say omicron COVID-19 cases have reached a plateau

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville is still in the midst of the COVID-19 omicron variant surge, but health officials are optimistic that the end is in sight.

Officials said case numbers are high. Three weeks ago, the city recorded 16,300 cases. A week later, there were 100 fewer cases. Just last week, officials said the city saw 14,200 cases.

With cases apparently trending downward, Louisville medical leaders are hopeful that cases are plateauing.

"We're having a little bit of a rosier perspective this week," said Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage, the associate medical director for Louisville's health department. "Our numbers are still very high and if they were this high a year ago or anytime in the past, it would have been quite frightening."

While cases appear to be on the downward trend in this surge, Hartlage said in a news conference Tuesday morning that she fully anticipates high case counts for the next few weeks.

She said data for the city shows a positivity rate above 32% across the board. That rate only calculates PCR positive tests, not positives from rapid tests. Hartlage said she believes there are a lot of cases out there not getting added to the total.

Fortunately, Hartlage said the data shows that the city's death count due to COVID-19 has not increased. Last week, there were two people who died because of COVID-19. The week before, there were 10. Health officials said this is likely because omicron causes a more mild infection.

During Tuesday morning's update, a University of Louisville doctor who specializes in maternal medicine urged pregnant women to get vaccinated. He said if they have concerns, they should talk to their doctors about the COVID-19 vaccine and not listen to what he characterized as "misinformation" that studies have proven wrong.