MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As the omicron variant has caused cases to surge and tests scarce to find, an infectious disease specialist is advising people to quarantine and not get tested unless it's essential. 

The Shelby County Health Department has reported a record-breaking average of 1,034 cases per day.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Manoj Jain said if you are feeling flu or cold-like symptoms and are unsure you have Covid, quarantine and mask up out of caution until your symptoms go away. If you have been exposed to someone with the virus, he said it's likely you have it with how transmissible the omicron variant is. 

"There are a lot of people who are really worried that they have Covid and before we were really encouraging people to get tested because we had a lot of capacity," Jain said. "Now the capacity is limited, it’s opening up slowly, but if you have classic symptoms of Covid, a fever, a cough, runny nose, sore throat, and a family member has had Covid or a coworker has had Covid it’s very likely you have a Covid infection." 

COVID-19 testing will be available on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Shelby County. Copy or share these graphics that list testing sites open this Friday and Saturday. More testing sites: https://t.co/sIt5UDjDKn. #GetTested #NewYearsTesting pic.twitter.com/9pq9ZkCkYQ

Jain said don't go to the emergency room for a Covid test unless your symptoms are severe or life-threatening. 

"If you are going to the emergency room either call beforehand or get yourself tested with an oxygen saturation machine," Jain said. "Very simple machine you can get from the pharmacy and check your oxygen saturation. If you're consistently running below 92% then think about going to the emergency room." 

Jain said while it's encouraging the omicron variant hasn't caused severe symptoms or hospitalizations, we still need to be careful until this passes. 

"This will pass in a few weeks to a month or so, but until then stay as safe as possible and get the vaccine because that will help you," Jain said.   

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