Covid-19 cases will 'peak in the next couple of weeks' before dropping off in February, top health expert says

• A top US doctor said while COVID-19 cases are surging, they will peak in the next few weeks.
• Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, added that hospitals are under a lot of stress.

A top US doctor predicts the number of COVID-19 cases will spike in the next few weeks in a "really bad surge" before dipping in February.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University's School of Public Health, said on ABC's "This Week" that hospitals are overrun with people who are unvaccinated or have not gotten their booster shots. Meanwhile, he said those who are vaccinated are "largely avoiding getting particularly sick."

"We're obviously in the middle of a really bad surge right now," Jha said. "Our hospital systems are under a lot of stress. I expect this surge to peak in the next couple of weeks. It'll peak in different places in America at different times. But once we get into February, I really do expect much, much lower case numbers."

The COVID-19 case count has hit an all-time high amid a global surge of the highly transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant.

Jha said the shift in the future will be considering a long-term strategy for managing the virus instead of going from "surge to surge."

"Over the long run, we have to look at COVID along with flu, RSV, other respiratory viruses, and ask some critical questions, like, how do we keep our hospitals from becoming overwhelmed? How do we keep schools open and safe during this time?" Jha said.

"And we have the tools now to do those things, improving ventilation, getting more vaccines and therapeutics out," he added.

Jha also said that people who test positive for COVID-19 and isolate for five days should try to get a negative rapid antigen test before returning to work.