While Omicron drives record COVID-19 case increases in the U.S., deaths have stayed relatively low so far - with about 1,300 Americans dying each day in the last week, compared to 2,600 deaths per day at this point in 2021.
The variant's inherently milder qualities, combined with high levels of immunity from vaccination and prior infections, may mean that a low percentage of people infected in the Omicron surge will face severe symptoms.
Experts say the U.S. is showing signs of 'decoupling,' in which increases in hospitalizations and deaths no longer directly follow increases in cases.
The U.S. could follow the U.K., where the current Covid mortality rate is 21 times lower than it was during the country's second wave and experts are saying Omicron 'should be welcomed.'
Following a large wave of cases in the U.S., some experts say that the variant could lead to even higher levels of population immunity - meaning that future surges will be even less severe.
While Omicron drives record Covid cases in the U.S., deaths have remained relatively low so far. Pictured: Hospital staff treat a Covid patient in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, January 2022
In the U.S., about 1,300 Americans are dying of Covid every day - compared to 2,600 deaths a day, double that number, in early January 2021
In the U.K., the share of cases leading to death (orange) has remained low even as cases rise to record heights (red), leading to optimism among some experts
The highly contagious Omicron variant is driving record cases across the U.S., with an average of 587,000 new cases reported on a seven-day rolling average, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
On Monday, more than 1 million new cases were reported in a single day - including some cases from holiday backlogs.
The current national case rate is more than twice as high as the rate reported in January 2021, during the U.S.'s last record-breaking surge.
Yet so far, hospitalization and death numbers have remained lower than last winter - both nationally and in many states and cities.
About 85,000 Covid patients are currently hospitalized in America's hospitals, compared to a peak of 124,000 during last winter's surge, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Each day in the past week, about 1,300 Americans died of Covid.
While this is still a high number, it's about half of the death rate at this time last year - over 2,600 Covid deaths per day.
Experts call this phenomenon 'decoupling': hospitalizations and deaths used to increase at the same rate as cases during surges, but now they increase at lower rates.
In the U.S., decoupling may be attributed to both Omicron's inherent biology and high levels of immunity in the population.
A growing number of studies are showing that Omicron is less likely to cause severe symptoms than past coronavirus strains.
Unlike other variants, Omicron can rapidly replicate in the upper airways - but has limited capacity to wreak havoc in the lungs, where the worst respiratory symptoms take place.
At the same time, the U.S. has high levels of immunity from vaccinations and past infections.
More than 70 percent of Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, while about one-third have been infected at some point, computational biologist Trevor Bedford recently told STAT News.
'Factored together, that's 80-odd percent [of people with some immunity,' Bedford said.
While the vaccines are less effective at protecting against Omicron
