But it's important to remember pre-Omicron doesn't mean pre-COVID. At the end of the month, if the projections do materialize, we'll still be in the middle of the wave.
So when will the Omicron wave end? Well, no one knows and Dr Manzanero pointed out that a wave doesn't really end until there are no cases for that variant - meaning the Delta wave technically hasn't ended yet either.
We'll hear more about that in a few, but first, Dr Manzanero also mentioned that if and when the Omicron wave does end, that won't mean we'll be out of the woods.
Dr. Russell Manzanero, Medical Epidemiologist, MOH
"If it is to end, I don't think that it's something that we can say. Yes, we are in the fourth wave and it looks somehow that it's on a down trend. However, as I mentioned it depends a lot on us, so if we don't do our part then these numbers will go right back up. With the reopening of schools, we have a paediatric population that is none vaccinated as yet. Perhaps with the reopening of borders, if we don't maintain those measures in place and the vaccination doesn't continue then we will see an increase again in those numbers. I think what I had mentioned in a separate interview was to say that you are over a wave basically is that you are reporting no cases. To get over a wave and you say okay we are finally over a wave, you would have zero cases in a X amount of time. We are not at that, we were never at that. We are seeing an increase and a decrease of cases and that's the way how this will be. Omicron will not be the last variant that we will see. We will see others. This is the nature of the virus. It mutates, it adapts and it's trying to establish itself within the population, so this is the way how it's going to be."
