WORCESTER, Mass. - There are no detected cases of the omicron variant in Central and Western Massachusetts, but it doesn't mean they won't appear. 

UMass Memorial Health says most of their hospitalized COVID patients have the delta variant of the virus. 

Internal medicine specialist, Dr. Richard Ellison, says the omicron variant appears to be spreading quickly, but is not causing as severe illness. 

Dr. Ellison is hoping over time the coronavirus will become more like a common cold similar to what happened with 1918 flu.  

"If we’re looking back at past pandemics, the 1918 flu which everyone compares COVID to, that same virus lasted in the United States and around the world for 30 years. It caused terrible, terrible disease between 1918 and 1921 and then basically shifted over and just caused what you think about as the typical flu throughout the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s,” Dr. Ellison said in an interview on Tuesday. “In the 50s, it was replaced by other strains of the flu virus.  So we can hope for that with the COVID virus."

Dr. Ellison says health care leaders will know more about the omicron variant in two to three weeks.