(AP) — Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19’s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically.

The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa.

Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, says omicron is “going to come down as fast as it went up.”