A "viral blizzard" threatens to strike the United States, according to a former COVID-19 adviser to President Joe Biden, and it, unfortunately, has nothing to do with snow.

Michael Osterholm said on Thursday the omicron variant of COVID-19 will cause a serious strain on the healthcare system, as more workers are likely to get sick, creating "a potential perfect storm."

"We're really just about to experience a viral blizzard," Osterholm told CNN. "In the next three to eight weeks, we're going to see millions of Americans are going to be infected with this virus, and that will be overlaid on top of delta, and we're not yet sure exactly how that's going to work out."

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Osterholm said he has been "very concerned" about how up to a quarter or a third of the nation's healthcare workers could test positive for COVID-19.

Early research suggested that the omicron variant was more transmissible but less severe than delta, which is twice as contagious as the prior variants, and some data suggest it can cause more severe illness than previous variants in unvaccinated people, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. Still, emerging studies indicate omicron may not actually be less severe than delta and could be vaccine-resistant.

The omicron variant of COVID-19 was first found in late November in South Africa. Cases since have been reported in 57 countries and 31 U.S. states, with Louisiana reporting eight cases on Tuesday.

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More than 800,000 U.S. residents have died from COVID-19 in the last 30 days. More than 200 million people have been fully vaccinated in the U.S., and roughly 58 million have received a booster shot, according to the CDC.