Another winter surge as COVID cases spike, schools fight to stay open ,and health care workers face exhaustion. But Omicron could end the pandemic
by Mark McDermott Only months ago normalcy appeared to have arrived. The summer surge had passed. Vaccination rates soared. COVID-19 cases in each of the Beach Cities slowed to a trickle. Schools fully reopened, public meetings resumed in person, and large gatherings once again took place over the holiday season. The pandemic had receded. And then Omicron arrived. In late November, reports of a new, highly contagious variant emerged out of South Africa. The World Health Organization on November 26 classified Omicron as “a variant of concern.” The first Omicron case in the U.S. was identified in California on December 1. By Christmas, the largest surge of cases since the pandemic began was underway. By January 3, the U.S. set a new record, registering 1 million new COVID-19 cases in a single day. But this surge was different, not only in the dizzying speed with which it spread, but in the potential hope that arrived with Omicron: that it might mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Endgame or utter catastrophe The numbers behind the Omicron surge are staggering locally as well nationally. On December 7, the variant accounted for only .04 percent of COVID cases in the United…
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