The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on December 29, 2021 that a “Tsunami” of Omicron cases are coming. This deluge of cases should stretch throughout the winter.
The Financial Times reported that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director-general, said the highly transmissible omicron variant and the fast-spreading delta variant will lead to the surge of cases. “This will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disrupting lives and livelihoods,” Tedros said.
“There is this narrative going on which is ‘it’s milder or less severe,’” Tedros said. “But we’re undermining the other side, at the same time it could be dangerous, because the high transmissibility could increase hospitalizations and deaths.” “Previous strains could often be treated with drugs called monoclonal antibodies. Omicron seems oblivious to most of these, and supplies of those that do affect it, newly developed versions … are limited. This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disrupting lives and livelihoods,” Tedros told reporters as the health body marked the two-year anniversary of the emergence of the pandemic.
We can expect to see major disruptions in the work force as more people become infected. The CDC reduced the isolation time for people who have a close contact but are asymptomatic. from ten days of isolation to five. After 5 days of isolation a person is still 35% infections, so it makes no sense that a negative test is not required before a person can return safely to work. If you are unvaccinated the virus will find you. It is so transmissible that it will be impossible to avoid. The hope is that it will boost the immunity for those who are fully vaccinated and boosted. This could be the beginning of the end of the pandemic or it could be just another enormous wave.
The nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections December 31, 2021, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The high case count is already causing disruptions in the country. In New York City, which just hosted a Times Square superspreader event on New Years Eve, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is plagued with staffing issues and announced three subway lines — the B, Z and W — which service various parts of the boroughs, have been suspended.
The virus is now “extraordinarily contagious” and previous mitigation measures that used to help now may not be as helpful, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on December 31, 2021. “At the beginning of this pandemic… we all were taught, you have a significant exposure if you’re within six feet of somebody and you’re in contact with them for more than 15 minutes. All these rules are out the window,” Reiner said. “This is a hyper-contagious virus.”
Now, even a quick, transient encounter can lead to an infection, Reiner added, including if someone’s mask is loose, or a person quickly pulls their mask down, or an individual enters an elevator in which someone else has just coughed.