Ontario’s COVID-19 dashboard is showing a shocking effective reproduction number for the omicron variant:
The figure is highly concerning both because it suggests higher transmissibility for omicron than for past variants and because, by extension, a larger fraction of the total population would need to be vaccinated to control its spread.
What we each choose to do affects the people around us, and we can’t allow exhaustion with the pandemic to let us abandon protective behaviours. The road to ending the pandemic as fast as possible remains for everyone to get vaccinated and to continue to employ protective measures including masks and physical distancing.
Fauci: Omicron ‘raging through the world’ and travel increases Covid risks
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/19/us-covid-fauci-omicron-variant-raging-travel-risks
Booster eligibility expands to 18+ across Ontario as COVID-19 cases continue to rise
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6292343
The U.S. could see 1 million cases per day, warns departing NIH director Francis Collins
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/19/1065575540/nih-director-francis-collins-omicron
Collins is retiring after 12 years of leading the federal health agency. He parts with a warning about the dangers of yielding to pandemic fatigue. “The virus is not tired of us,” he says.
Currently, R(t) based on cases cannot be estimated accurately because the testing capacity in Ontario is insufficient to deal with the number of infections caused by Omicron, and the testing strategy has changed.
https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/ontario-dashboard/