How are things going in the Netherlands? The prime minister explains, "We have to act now to prevent a worst-case scenario. Without measures, we could be witnessing an uncontrollable situation at the start of January." What measures? The country is in nationwide lockdown. All but the most essential stores plus restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums, and other public spaces are closed until at least January 14. Schools and universities are closing a week early for the Christmas break and will stay closed until at least January 9. If that doesn't sound like enough, households are recommended to have no more than two visitors, though four will be allowed for Christmas and New Year's. Outside gatherings are limited to two people. Omicron will become the dominant strain by year's end. Hospitals have been canceling regular care for weeks and are still running out of beds. Cases are at record highs, though there is likely some error in the counts for the early days of the pandemic.
The UK's health minister is not ruling out more restrictions there. London's mayor says that new restrictions are "inevitable" and could affect social distancing and household mixing. Cases in Greater London are up 200 percent over the last two weeks. There were 65,525 new cases last week, and 26,418 in the last day of the week. Paris has canceled the New Year's Eve fireworks. Denmark has closed theaters, concert halls, amusement parks, and museums. Ireland has imposed an 8:00 pm curfew on pubs and bars and limited attendance at events both indoors and out.
So much for how Europe is handling Omicron. Here, only 30 percent of vaccinated Americans have gotten a booster. Just over half of Americans ages 65 and older have gotten boosters. New York saw 3,909 covid patients enter hospitals on Friday, an increase of 70 percent. Test positivity was 7.53 up from 2.6 percent on September 22. The number that floored me was that in Tompkins County, home to the city of Ithaca and Cornell University, cases rose 640 percent over a 14-day period. No, that is not a typo. The only decimal point would be one after the zero. They are seeing 224 cases per 100,000 people; the rate in New York City is 61 per 100,000.
Harvard University has announced that they will be offering remote learning for the first three weeks of January. The Professor is worried that the local university might go the same route. Having taught remotely for several semesters, he does not want to do it again. We appear to be lagging behind Europe in terms of Omicron's impact. Are we willing to reinstate stronger restrictions as several European countries are? I know that we likely won't here in Virginia unless there is a federal order. Our governor-elect is a conservative who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for He Who Shall Not Be Named in 2024. I don't expect any mandated mitigation measures here. [Yes, I have reverted to my original way of referring to a certain orange someone.]
1 comment:
For comparison the England case rate is 661 per 100,000 people, the Tompkins rate would be wildly aspirational for us. If they are young and fit as one might expect in the student body then they are unlikely to be putting much pressure on healthcare resources.
My son's departmental end of term party was followed by a chat thread of "positive covid test (sad face)" followed by a series of pings of "me too". They will have just finished isolation before Christmas Day. He didn't go because "Do I look stupid mum?"
I'd like to get through this without civil disobedience and if Boris cancels Christmas at the last minute again I suspect there might be some. Last year people had made plans to meet the family they hadn't seen all year, ordered appropriately sized turkeys and piles of food only to have their meetings declared illegal at the last minute. This year has the potential to go the same way except that I can't believe that they would be so dim as to make the same poorly timed decision twice. Cancel early or not at all, it's not as if it's a surprise that people gather at Christmas. We don't have Thanksgiving, this is the big family event in the year for the vaguely Christian.
I suspect that schools may not return as planned, it has a huge impact on working parents so I hope that my then we've decided that Omicron isn't they bogeyvariant it was feared to be.
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