Out of Steam
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2017
- Messages
- 1,666
Here in the DC metropolitan area, cases have skyrocketed, and this area has a very high vaccination rate. DC and suburban MD have masking mandates which are well-respected. One month ago, the 7-day average daily new case rate in DC was 11 per 100,000 population. Today it is 291. MD is 147 per 100,000 which is still a huge number. MD presently has the 4th highest new infection rate among the 50 states, and DC is higher than all of them. Hospitalizations are at record highs in MD, though the percentage of people infected with covid requiring hospitalization is lower than for other variants, so far.
Urban areas in the northeast are getting hammered with covid right now, and I expect this explosive case growth to spread throughout North America, and then Latin America.
This entire metro area had weathered the covid storm better than most regions until now thanks to high vaccination rates and responsible behavior. Infection rates here are now the highest they've been since the pandemic began, which is indicative of just how infectious omicron is. One suburban MD county reportedly has the highest vaccination rate in the country (NIH & FDA are located within the county), but even the new infection rate there is sky-high right now.
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I expect to get omicron at some point (I'm boosted with Pfizer), but I'd like to hold if off for as long as possible. It's very difficult to get a timely PCR test reservation here right now because demand is so high. Actual infection case rates are probably even higher than our high numbers due to non-reporting of antigen tests results, as well as all of the folks who are unable to get tested at all. There are also recent reports that antigen tests are less likely to detect an omicron infection than infections from earlier variants.
We used to live in Suburban Maryland, and our daughter does now. The numbers there are shocking considering the high vaccination rates.
Agree that omicron infection appears close to inevitable, but being on an immunosuppressant drug, I'd like to hold it off at least until the new pill treatment is more widely distributed.