JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida reported its highest number of COVID-19 positive cases last week since late September.
They are numbers we haven't seen in about 12 weeks.
"I would not be surprised at all that omicron is not in Jacksonville. I would actually be quite sure that it already is," said Internal Medicine Dr. Saman Soleymani.
Although the Duval County Health Department hasn't confirmed an omicron case locally, he, along with others, warn a COVID-19 winter surge is coming.
"We definitely believe it's going to get worse over the next few weeks," he told First Coast News.
Data from the Florida Department of Health shows there were 29,568 new COVID-19 cases the week ending December 10th. That's more than double from the 13,481 cases the previous week.
There were three more deaths reported last week, 39, than the 36 deaths reported the week before.
Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Frederick Southwick fears the omicron variant could spread quickly in the state because he believes people have let their guard down.
"Florida is really a sitting duck because we have stopped all infectious control practices," Dr. Southwick said.
He wants the state to do a better job promoting the vaccine, which numbers show far fewer people received the shot two weeks ago than the week before.
Dr. Soleymani urges people to get the vaccine, and the booster, to help prevent a holiday season that's remembered for all the wrong reasons.
"Our concern are the elderly, immunocompromised or patients that have well known comorbidities that if they catch COVID, they could have a negative outcome," he said.