Arizona:
Obviously fake news. There is no COVID in Arizona, that’s why mask and vaccine mandates are being outlawed.
I have a friend who works at a Safeway pharmacy in Yavapai County (where the first cases of both delta and omicron in Arizona were found). Her employer has said that workers wearing masks make the customers uncomfortable so its discouraged. They don’t do walk in COVID shots because they were throwing out so much expired vaccine.
Too late to edit but that article didn’t mention that there are less than 70 ICU beds available in the state.
This whole, “vaccination protects against serious illness” thing seems to be playing out. I was comparing Arizona to the Northeast on 91-divoc:
And if you look at cases, they are about the same per 100K. But if you look at deaths, Arizona is a lot higher than the northeast.
It’s seriously frustrating and currently frightening. I’m really worried about tripping and breaking my hip because I do NOT want to end up in a hospital filled with un-vaccinated staff and COVID patients. If there is even room to take me, that is.
270,426,226 total cases
5,321,864 dead
243,097,851 recovered
In the US:
50,801,455 total cases
817,956 dead
40,003,674 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
A lot of those states with rising numbers of new COVID cases (seven day averaged) on the Johns Hopkins site have turned around. The map is mostly blue now. Massachusetts and Connecticut did a quick about-face.
Not everyone is so lucky. Maine hit a new record high of 1475 cases on December 11, way above its previous highs of 609 set on January 12 and 694 on November 24 – higher than both of those put together, in fact.
Wisconsin looks set to set a new record, with 6601 on Dec 11 and rising rapidly. The previous high was 7045 set over a year ago on November 15 2020.
New Jersey might also set a new record. It reported 4984 cases on Dec 11 and is rising fast. The previous record was 6191 back on January 12.
Delaware had 754 cases reported yesterday and is rising rapidly. The prior record was 827 on January 7.
Oddly, Arizona, despite the bad reports cited above, doesn’t look so bad on the new reported cases chart. The number of cases is increasing, but not at a very fast rate, and it’s way below its previous high from January.
In South Africa, Omicron cases have gone through the roof, but the death rate is still very low. All reports seem to be that it’s a very mild variant.
It’s nearly three weeks since the Omicron wave started, and if the death rate was going to go up, it would have started to do so by now.
We’re still on the lowest lockdown level, and the National Covid Council will be meeting tomorrow to decide if any action needs to taken. I’m betting on slightly stricter rules on gatherings over the Christmas period, but nothing more.
The UK has reported its first death from the omicron variant.
It’s still a little early to know whether omicron looks mild because it is mild, or because most of the people infected had prior immunity.
There is also the fact that Covid deaths are a lagging indicator–that patients are sick for weeks or months before they die but omicron is very new.
South Africa has only 23% fully vaccinated, so I doubt that’s a factor.
In previous waves the lag time has been 2-3 weeks before patients start being put on ventilators. That hasn’t happened this time.
Some experts are saying that the number of omicron infections has already peaked in Gauteng, where the first outbreak occurred.
Data from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases shows positivity rates dropping from 30% to around 15% between Thursday and Saturday, while the number of new hospitalizations fell from 207 to 64 over the same period.
This optimistic assessment is in contrast to the deep anxiety that Omicron has stoked in the U.S. and Europe … These worries may be overblown, at least in Streicher’s reading of the situation.
Only 23% fully vaccinated, but quite a lot had a prior infection, and I assume some are partially vaccinated, too. They are studying the rate of reinfection, and it’s really high. The corollary to that is that a lot of people with Omicron had a prior infection. I don’t know what percent, but I bet it’s significant.
Personally, I’m optimistic that omicron isn’t going to be a big deal for people who have prior exposure, either through infection or vaccines.
Or because the population is so young
Don’t you understand that when doctors talk about “mild” cases they just mean that the patient wasn’t hospitalized–while in fact the patient may feel truly miserable: “sick as a dog” and “wishes he was dead”.
But the big problem for people with prior exposure is that they may have all kinds of other medical problems and the hospitals will be filled to capacity and there will be massive delays in getting treatment.
BBC version of the story.
Of note:
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs Omicron now represented 20% of cases in England.
And
The NHS website crashed on Monday after more than 110,000 people tried to book their booster before 09:00 GMT, the government said.
There have also been long queues at walk-in centres and new orders for lateral flow tests on the government website have been temporarily suspended due to high demand.
j
I do. But I’m personally more worried about long covid than about feeling sick as a dog for a week. That’s the news I’m waiting to see re omicron.
I think we’ll know a lot more within a week, though. (Maybe not re long covid, but about most of the other risks) and that’s when my household will decide if we are bunkering down again, or going about our lives with masks.
Just got a broadcast email to everyone at my agency (I’m a government contractor) that due to increasing levels of COVID in the agency’s area, masks are once again required when inside a Federal building.
Dunno if that’s government-wide, or just in that specific area. Since I don’t go into the office at all, it’s a non-issue for me.
I’m very glad that I never got out of the habit of wearing a mask in public. Having comfy masks helps, of course.
271,097,024 total cases
5,328,507 dead
243,754,350 recovered
In the US:
51,018,282 total cases
819,315 dead
40,154,700 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: