These update posts are getting shorter as time goes on, but we’re still learning about this variant! News items from this week include: Omicron now causing almost 100% of cases in the U.S., Northeast hotspots seem to be peaking, and more.
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As the Omicron surge continues, we are still learning more about this variant. Here are the major updates from this week, including: Omicron now causing over 90% of U.S. cases, hospitals becoming overwhelmed, possible peaks, and more.
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The majority of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are now caused by Omicron, and a massive surge is underway. But there’s good news: the variant continues to appear less likely to cause severe disease than past coronavirus strains, and South Africa’s wave may have already peaked.
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WWe keep learning about this dangerous variant as it spreads through the U.S. and the world. A few major updates from this week include Omicron’s enormous potential for transmission and the U.S.’s lack of preparedness.
Read MoreAs the world waits for more information on Omicron, I’d like to give a shout-out to the scientists collecting data on this novel variant and sharing it with the public. As of today, over 500 Omicron sequences have been posted to the genome sharing site GISAID.
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This week, the CDC published a new data page about the coronavirus variants now circulating in the U.S. The page provides estimates of how many new cases in the country may be attributed to different SARS-CoV-2 lineages, including both more familiar, wild-type variants (B.1. and B.1.2) and newer variants of concern. These new data are useful, but the page has some presentation problems
Read MoreIn a press conference on Wednesday, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that the recently identified NYC variant (since christened B-1526) is outpacing the original strain in spreading speed, and his senior advisor for Public Health, Dr. Jay Varma, said that these two variants combined account for 51% of all cases in the city.
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