COVID-19 cases, fueled by the omicron variant, are rising across the U.S., and a surge is expected to arrive in North Texas in early January, health experts say. Here are five takeaways.

A COVID-19 surge in North Texas is inevitable.

A North Texas COVID-19 surge in omicron cases and hospitalizations “is inevitable,” said Dr. Joseph Chang, chief medical officer at Parkland Health & Hospital System. Parkland, which closed most of its COVID-19 units recently as cases dwindled, is now expecting to open more of them again.

“We can see it coming, and I bet it will start to ramp up here in the next week or so,” he said. “I would be very surprised if we didn’t have to open at least one or two of our COVID wards back up.”

Omicron appears to cause less severe disease – but it seems to evade go-to antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly.

Preliminary data out of South Africa, where the variant was first detected, show omicron appears to cause less severe disease but is more easily transmitted. The recent findings have not been peer-reviewed – the gold standard in scientific research – but they line up with early data about omicron’s behavior, The Associated Press reported.

Both Pfizer and Moderna released early data showing a booster dose of their vaccines may offer more protection against omicron even though the initial two-dose regimen appears to be less effective.

U.S. health regulators on Wednesday authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that Americans will be able to take at home to head off the worst effects of the virus, the Associated Press reported. An antiviral pill from Merck also is expected to soon win authorization. But Pfizer’s drug is all but certain to be the preferred option because of its mild side effects and superior effectiveness, including a nearly 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.

Antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly have been the go-to therapies for early COVID-19 for more than a year, but both drugmakers recently warned that laboratory testing suggests their drugs will be much less effective against omicron, the AP reported.

Competing British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline appears best positioned to fight the new coronavirus strain with its antibody treatment, although it is not widely available in the U.S.

Even if the omicron variant is less severe than delta – and experts say it’s too early to know for sure – that doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be fewer hospitalizations, said Catherine Troisi, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

“It’s very, very infectious, and a lot of breakthrough infections appear,” she said. “So, even if it’s a lower percent of people who need to be hospitalized, if you have more people infected, there can still be a lot of hospitalizations.”

The COVID-19 surge could delay health care for non-virus patients.

As seen in previous surges, more COVID-designated beds mean fewer options for patients coming to hospitals with other medical issues – and patients who defer care this year may end up sicker next year.

The full scope of the pandemic’s impact on overall health likely won’t be seen until regular doctor’s visits – that are not COVID-related – can resume uninterrupted, said Dr. John Carlo, CEO and president of Prism Health.

“We really need to start looking at things beyond COVID,” he said. “I think that the overall effect of having to go through this again is probably not going to be appreciated for some time.”

Putting off critical medical care can make patients with chronic conditions like heart disease even sicker by the time they come to the hospital or doctor’s office, said Dr. Amy Wilson, chief medical officer at Baylor University Medical Center.

“What we’re seeing is patients that are sicker in general, their medical issues are more severe,” Wilson said.

Hospitalization rates are rising again in North Texas.

Hospitalizations in D-FW have increased in the last two weeks after nearly a month of decreasing or stagnant hospitalization rates, according to data analysis by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center released Dec. 15.

In Dallas County, hospitalizations have increased by 6% over the two weeks leading up to Dec. 13. In Tarrant County, hospitalizations have increased 13% in that same time period.

Hospital officials are worried about burnout on their staffs.

One of the biggest concerns for health care leaders staring down another COVID-19 surge is the mental and physical well-being of their staffs. Health care workers are burned out after nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many are electing to leave the field altogether.

“Our workforce is tired,” said Baylor Scott & White Health’s chief medical officer Dr. Alejandro Arroliga. “Our workforce is emotionally exhausted, just like the rest of the country.”

Staffing shortages at hospitals leave little room for something to go wrong – something like an outbreak of the omicron variant among hospital workers.

A majority of hospital systems in North Texas have vaccine mandates and high staff vaccination rates. But the omicron’s high-transmissibility is cause for concern, said Wilson of Baylor University Medical Center.

“It’s essential that our workforce stay healthy so that we can continue caring for the community, regardless of whether they have COVID or some other critical medical issue that needs our help,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.