Ready for a new variant or two, something to follow Omicron XE aka BA.2.2? It seems that new Omicron subvariants so far known as BA.4 and BA.5 have been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and the UK. The good news is that so far there have been no major spikes in cases, hospitalizations, or deaths in South Africa, where these subvariants have been the longest.
The situation in Shanghai gets a bit dicier. The US has told all nonessential staff members to gather their families and leave Shanghai "due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak." Last week they were told they could leave; now they are being told they must leave. One concern is that China separates parents and children when a positive case is found within a family.
On the home front, things could be getting dicier as well. Philadelphia is the first major city to reinstate an indoor mask mandate in response to a sharp increase in cases. Cases rose almost 70 percent in 10 days; the threshold for reinstating the mask mandate is 50 percent. One concern is that if they don't act now, as cases continue to rise so will hospitalizations and deaths. The mask mandate ended on March 2; the city will start enforcing the new mandate on April 18. New York City is averaging three times as many cases daily as they were in early March when restrictions were eased.
Some universities are reinstating mask mandates. American University will require masks in all campus buildings; professors may remove masks in order to teach. Columbia University will require non-cloth masks in classrooms for the rest of the semester. At Georgetown University, masks are required in any campus building until further notice. Johns Hopkins is going big-time. Masks are required indoors, and students will be tested twice each week. Almost 100 students have tested positive there since April 1. Rice University will require masks in classrooms regardless of vaccination status; unvaccinated people must wear masks in all indoor areas.
It is not clear how long the surge happening in the Northeast will continue and how high the peak might get. A Harvard epidemiologist describes it: "There's definitely something coming but depending on all the moving parts, it might be a ripple relative to previous waves." The new White House covid response coordinator says that he doesn't think we have to be "excessively concerned." Another writer suggests that this surge could be our first "so what" wave, "a surge it cares to neither measure nor respond to." The next couple of weeks will be interesting ones. We should remember, though, that "may you live in interesting times" is actually a curse.
1 comment:
I've been experiencing Portland (OR) traffic every other day for the past few weeks, and it reminds me of this whole mask-on-mask-off-mask-back-on phenomenon. There are always those (and this applies in every city, nation-wide) who weave from lane to lane because it's always faster where they aren't. Then there are those of us who stay quietly, unconcernedly in our lanes, driving carefully and disregarding those around us who are too impatient with the pace of things around them. We all get to the same place at roughly the same time, some frazzled and frustrated that things weren't moving fast enough, most happy to be safely home and glad for the time to think quietly about things while moving along at 5 miles an hour.
I won't even go into the snow happening right now! C'mon, Oregon!
Bird 'Pie
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