What do Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, California Representative Katie Hill, Rock Star Jon Bon Jovi, and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith have in common? They are all fully vaccinated, and all of them got breakthrough Covid infections. Warren said in a tweet: “I regularly test for Covid and while I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive with a breakthrough case. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms and am grateful for the protection provided against serious illness that comes from being vaccinated and boosted.”
All over the world, the record number of people catching the Omicron variant has left health systems under severe strain. Studies suggest that Omicron is less likely to make people seriously ill than previous Covid variants, but Omicron is still highly contagious and can infect people even if they are fully vaccinated and boosted. A study published in the journal Nature said Omicron can evade the immune protection conferred by Covid vaccines and natural infection. The study also “highlights the need for new vaccines and treatments that anticipate how the SARS-CoV-2 virus may soon evolve.”
Earlier, the World Health Organization has warned that half of Europe will have caught the Omicron variant in February. The projection was based on the seven million new cases reported across Europe in the first week of 2022. WHO Europe Director Dr. Hans Kluge said that 26 European countries reported that more than one percent of their populations are being infected with Covid-19 each week, and the number of infections has more than doubled in a two-week period.
From the Associated Press: “Scientists are seeing signals that Covid-19’s alarming Omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the US, at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically. The reason: The variant has proved so wildly contagious that it may already be running out of people to infect, just a month and a half after it was first detected in South Africa. “It’s going to come down as fast as it went up,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.”
In the Philippines, Omicron-driven infections are still on the rise. The country breached the 3-million mark on Tuesday after logging 28,007 additional infections, prompting the Department of Health to warn of further increase in infection count in the coming days. The DOH also reported 45.5-percent positivity rate out of 58,409 persons that were tested. (Read, “PHL breaches 3 million Covid cases mark; 28,007 additional infections logged,” in the BusinessMirror, January 11, 2022).
The good news is that Malacañang has said the National Capital Region is unlikely to be placed under Alert Level 4 anytime soon because its health-care utilization rate is still below 70 percent. Acting Presidential Spokesman Karlo B. Nograles said while NCR has already met the threshold to be raised to Alert Level 4 in terms of two-week growth rate and Average Daily Attack Rate, it has not reached the critical health-care utilization rate. “The total bed utilization has yet to reach 71 percent and up, and that is the reason why we are in Alert Level 3,” Nograles said (Read, “NCR health-care utilization rate key to AL 4,” BusinessMirror, Janauary 11, 2022).
As the Omicron continues to wreak havoc nationwide, we need to continue following preventive measures. It pays to remember that many people can become infected without ever knowing it and pass the virus onward. A face mask can slow transmission between people who may be infectious but are without symptoms. Let’s hope infections have peaked and are now headed for a rapid drop. Still, we cannot afford to let our guard down.