We have all seen the lines: people on the Upper Eastside are willing to wait over 1 hour to get tested and in the Lexington Ave. / 86th Street neighborhood I counted 5 free testing sites just this morning.
The Mayor and the Governor weigh in here:
Hochul Says No New
Shutdown as Omicron
Overtakes Delta, Fuels Case Records
and apparently, we are not alone:
The U.S. Faces Another Covid Christmas as Omicron Fuels a Rise in Cases
Here is a scary story I heard firsthand. You know all major offices and businesses are having Christmas parties. So this one happened about 7 days ago: 100 guests and some catering people. Everyone was tested for Covid the day of the party. Everyone was negative. Everyone was vaccinated x2 and most had had a booster shot. 2 days after the party one person had Covid (symptomatic cold-like illness). So they test all 100 guests again 3-7 days after the party. Now 25/100 are positive and some of them have symptoms.
25% of vaccinated people were apparently NOT protected? Wow!
Well, perhaps they were protected from having a severe disease requiring an ER visit or even hospitalization. It is a bit too early to tell.
Avoid office parties! Perhaps we need to lock down again?
A covid testing site in Washington: The mayor reinstated an indoor mask mandate on Monday.Credit…Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
