Even If The Omicron Wave Declines; Is There An End To This Pandemic?

As omicron has taken its toll for a month now, covid positive cases in some parts of the country have shown to be declining. Even though the Omicron variant is found to be more contagious, and infect people who are vaccinated, some positive signs of reducing cases can be seen across states.

Even If The Omicron Wave Declines; Is There An End To This Pandemic?

Americans have started to believe that this might be the last battle with the virus. As reduced severity is seen in this virus, it is expected that by the end of this wave people can start their normal life back. After 2 years of a long war with the omicron, people have gained immunity either by vaccination or infection with covid. The recent wave has affected most people in the United States compared to previous waves. Soon the virus will not be able to spread and get eradicated from our lives.

Positive cases in South Africa and England have reduced as fast as they rose. Declining cases of omicron are seen in every early hit state, infections are declining, it is expected that hospitalizations and deaths will decline as well. Health officials suggested that vaccinating 70 percent of the population would help us get through this pandemic and the threat of the virus would become negligible. The amount of people that need to be vaccinated depends on the severity of the virus.

Though some expect this wave to be the last, not everyone is optimistic, the omicron wave in the United States may in the next few weeks and it will be the end of a pandemic or a new variant combination of both omicron and delta might surge through the nation with random outbreaks. In the future people might be infected with the virus and show symptoms like cold but they would not be severely infected.

Corona might never completely disappear from our life, it can become more of a seasonal disease like flu and we should learn to live with that. As only less than half of people are vaccinated, new variants might still emerge to extend the misery.

The United States is reporting 650,000 cases per day, a decrease from its early peak of 800,000 covid cases per day and an average of 2,300 death cases are being reported every day but hospitalizations have been decreased to 155,000 cases per day. Either the numbers might fall and America can get back to life before the pandemic. By spring it is expected that Americans can go back to their workplaces mask-free and children can go back to their schools and socialize without social distancing. Viruses becoming endemic may not be a positive sign, as diseases like tuberculosis, measles can still spread among people and kill lakhs of people each year.

The virus may stay put for a while, show sudden outbreaks, and infect millions. There are still millions of people who are unvaccinated and only half of the eligible people have received booster doses. As the effectiveness of vaccines is found to reduce after while protection against virus is not guaranteed for a long time, and causes random outbreaks. If the strength of vaccination is weak, people might need to stand in long queues every year to receive their annual dose of vaccination against covid.

Coronavirus can be compared with the flu, which managed to survive alongside humans. Similar to flu, Covid can affect certain people like children, people with weak immune systems. President Biden called the administration to plan about the ‘new normal’ that includes learning to live along with the virus and set limits for hospitalizations and infections which would alert national emergency.