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DENVER (KDVR) — New data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment shows that omicron has become the overwhelmingly dominant variant in Colorado in a matter of weeks.

According to state sequencing data, omicron now accounts for 91.18% of cases in the state, with delta accounting for the rest.

State health officials are able to conduct genome sequencing on different PCR test samples at the state lab to project how prevalent a variant is in the state.

The state also partners with wastewater districts to test for variants and calculate community spread. Recently, the state detected the omicron variant at all 21 sites it partners with.

Cases reflect the omicron variant’s rapid spread. The holidays were marked by a slowdown in COVID metrics before the state released the most recent batch of data, and the new data changes the tune sharply.

The daily number of new cases has doubled since Dec. 16, from 1,633 a day to over 3,800.

Severe illnesses are beginning to trail the upswing in cases, too. Since Christmas Day, there are 85 more COVID patients in hospitals, and the number of COVID hospital admissions has shot up 50% since Dec. 21.