South China Morning Post (May 18)
“A surge in the number of Chinese professionals looking for emigration opportunities in response to China’s strict zero-Covid measures could affect the country’s ambitions to become a science and technology superpower.” The “noticeable spike” in interest in leaving China began after “outbreaks of the Omicron variant emerged in Shanghai” around the end of May.
Tags: Ambitions, China, Emigration, Omicron, Opportunities, Outbreaks, Professionals, Science, Spike, Strict, Superpower, Surge, Technology, Variant, Zero COVID
The Guardian (March 30)
“The pandemic has changed, but the idea that it is over is false.” Last week, the UK had an estimated 4.26 million cases and hospital “admissions with Covid are only 2% below the first Omicron peak two months ago and still rising.” Nor is Covid endemic. Eventually, it probably will be, but endemic “does not necessarily mean mild,” as TB, Malaria and other endemic diseases illustrate. “Trying to ignore a disease that is still so unpredictable feels a bit like turning your back on a hungry tiger in the undergrowth.”
Tags: Admissions, Cases, Covid, Diseases, Endemic, False, Hospital, Hungry tiger, Malaria, Mild, Omicron, Pandemic, Peak, Rising, TB, UK, Unpredictable
Reuters (March 15)
“China posted a steep jump in daily COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, with new cases more than doubling from a day earlier to hit a two-year high, raising concerns about the rising economic costs of the country’s tough containment measures.” The nation’s “zero tolerance approach is not only becoming more costly, but also suffering diminishing returns against the highly infectious Omicron.”
Tags: China, Containment, COVID-19, Diminishing returns, Doubling, Economic costs, High, Infections, New cases, Omicron, Zero tolerance
South China Morning Post (February 17)
“Omicron has brought Hong Kong to its knees.” Things have gone “so horribly wrong” as the zero-Covid policy buckled. The health care system now teeters “on the brink of collapse.” Patients now “lie in beds outside hospitals and thousands more wait days for admission to isolation facilities.”
Tags: Admission, Collapse, Health-care system, Hong Kong, Horribly wrong, Hospitals, Isolation, Omicron, Patients, Zero COVID
Tampa Bay Times (February 9)
The latest Omicron wave “isn’t receding as quickly as hoped” based on the symmetry of past waves. “By now cases should have fallen to fewer than 5,000 cases a day. Instead, Florida’s daily average was nearly 18,000 cases on Sunday…nearly 270 percent higher than expected had the wave been perfectly symmetrical.” Omicron’s lingering success appears linked to “an abundance of mutations that made the variant about 2.7 to 3. 7 times more infectious than the delta variant in vaccinated households.”
Tags: 000 cases, 18, Delta, Expected, Florida, Higher, Infectious, Lingering, Mutations, Omicron, Receding, Symmetry, Variant, Wave, Waves
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (February 1)
“The highly contagious omicron variant has pushed the daily average of U.S. COVID-19 deaths higher than last fall’s delta wave as the nation nears a chilling milestone of 900,000 coronavirus deaths.” Statewide deaths have also been growing, though “it remains unclear if Georgia will surpass the peak that followed the devastating surge of the earlier delta variant.”
Tags: Chilling, Contagious, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths, Delta wave, Devastating, Georgia, Milestone, Omicron, Peak, Surge, Surpass, U.S., Variant
Wall Street Journal (February 1)
“Despite record-high case numbers, the U.K. and other governments across Europe responded to Omicron with lighter restrictions than any previous wave of the virus, allowing businesses to remain open.” Moreover, individuals and businesses have “adapted to restrictions, minimizing the effects.” As a result, economic growth in Europe has slowed far less than during previous surges.
Tags: Businesses, Cases, Economic growth, Europe, High, Individuals, Omicron, Open, Record, Restrictions, Slowed, U.K., Virus
San Francisco Chronicle (January 25)
“The start of the new year brought a familiar wave of distress for many Bay Area parents: Omicron infections were accelerating; preschools and child care centers were shutting their doors; adults saw their work regimens upended, their children cloistered and irritable.” But there is now a new worry. It’s hitting children harder. “The pervasive threat of omicron to children too young to be vaccinated has added a layer of anguish.”
Tags: Accelerating, Adults, Anguish, Children, Distress, Familiar, Infections, Omicron, Parents, Preschools, Threat, Upended, Vaccinated, Wave, Work
LA Times (January 17)
“The Los Angeles County saw an average of 40 coronavirus deaths a day over the last week, the highest such rate in nearly 10 months, a sign that the prolific Omicron variant may be deadlier than many initially believed.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Deadlier, Deaths, Highest, Los Angeles, Omicron, Prolific, Variant
New York Times (January 16)
China’s zero-tolerance COVID policy has been “highly effective, but the extreme transmissibility of the Omicron variant poses the biggest test yet,” and threatens to disrupt supply chains. “The potential for setbacks comes just as many companies had hoped they were about to see some easing of the bottlenecks that have clogged global supply chains since the pandemic began.”
Tags: Bottlenecks, China, Clogged, Covid, Disrupt, Effective, Omicron, Supply chains, Transmissibility, Variant, Zero tolerance
