D.C. area slammed hard as winter coronavirus surge blasts the U.S.
The coronavirus pandemic is tearing up the country with the Omicron variant shattering infection records and rates and this viral strain and the Delta variant overwhelming hospitals and threatening to break the already exhausted U.S. health care system.
Uncertainty has returned to conversations about the pandemic’s course, as educators decide whether to return students at least temporarily to online learning, travel has been disrupted, and businesses make tough health safety decisions.
Patients and experts alike are pondering basic questions in dealing with the disease and its risks. These include whether deaths, a lagging indicator, will spike with Omicron as they did with the Delta surge, and are current responses — such as cloth or “surgical” face coverings, isolation, quarantine, and rapid testing — as effective with highly contagious Omicron?