What happened
The highly contagious Omicron variant was driving a massive wave of Covid infections across the U.S. this week, with health experts warning that the strain could soon bring record-breaking daily case counts—but potentially fewer deaths than last winter’s surge. The U.S. is reporting some 150,000 new cases a day, 73 percent of which are caused by Omicron. By late next month or early February, the country could be recording 400,000 new cases a day, according to a forecast by the University of Washington; last winter’s peak was 250,000. Single-day Covid deaths could climb as high as 2,000; last winter’s peak was 3,500. Early data from South Africa and Scotland suggest that the hospitalization risk with Omicron is about two-thirds lower than with Delta. But more breakthrough infections…
