Australian Chief Medical Officer (CHO) said that although daily COVID-19 Omicron case numbers are decreasing, the worse has yet to come. CHO Paul Kelly stated that it would be several weeks before deaths and hospitalisations from the Omicron variant reach their peak, despite plateauing COVID-19 cases. “We expect death and hospitalisations to continue to rise over the next couple of weeks as we are about to peak in terms of caseloads, particularly in the eastern states,” Kelly told ABC Radio on Wednesday. “We know from international experience that Omicron rises quickly, it plateaus and then falls quickly, and I fully expect that this will be the experience here in Australia.” Australia had its highest one-day death toll from the pandemic on Jan. 18, with 77 fatalities reported. On Tuesday, there were 36 deaths in New South Wales (NSW), 22 in Victoria, 16 in Queensland—more than double its previous high of …