The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 225 (725)

California is somewhat formally moving from pandemicity to endemicity as state mandates are lifted or loosened. A legislative movement is underway to add covid to the list of vaccines required for children to enter school.  Coupled with this is a movement to close the personal belief exemption for covid vaccination. It sounds as if it would stay in place for other vaccinations such as measles.

In terms of California's move, covid does appear to be slowing its onslaught. Cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks rose in only two states, Washington and Connecticut, and the largest rise, in Washington, was only five. The biggest decline was Kentucky's forty. West Virginia, Maine, and New Hampshire also saw significant drops. Probably more telling, daily deaths fell by 24 percent in the past two weeks. Death is even more of a lagging measurement than hospitalization, so a drop in deaths is possibly one of the truest signs the Omicron surge is ending. I'm trying not to think about the BA.2 variant as I type that. 

The TSA is extending the mask mandate for airplanes and other public transportation through April 18. The mandate applies both to public transportation and to public transportation hubs such as airports or bus stations. The CDC is consulting with other federal agencies about how long to keep this mask mandate in effect. Meanwhile, Ontario is dropping its universal mask mandate as of March 21, though authorities emphasize that this does not mean the risk is gone. 

Omicron is still peaking in parts of East and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong has the highest fatality rate in the world right now. Lots of countries are loosening their entrance requirements and seeking to welcome the tourists they have not seen for two years.

I did not emerge into the real, peopled world last night, passing on the quilting guild chapter meeting The Professor thought I should attend. Not having slept well the night before, I ended up sleeping all the way home from sewing-machine-dropoff and lunch in Richmond and still felt too tired to venture out. I have never liked driving at night--my eyeglasses don't fix my double vision as well in the dark as they do in the daylight--and did not want to drive in the dark while exhausted. As for venturing out, I did to work with early voting for two elections and two election days, so those should count for something.