AllTop Viral!

California is going to lift its indoor mask mandate––at least for vaccinated people––on February 15. As the recent COVID surge wanes, New Jersey has announced that they will lift mask mandates on March 7.

Protesters in southern Alberta entered a public school demanding n end to mask mandates for children.

Toronto public health has announced that it is no longer trying to eradicate COVID and will instead begin learning to live with it.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Ottawa to protest lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and masks. The protest comes amidst a new, and particularly confusing, stage of the pandemic. The dramatic surge of omicron cases has led to an increase in COVID-related deaths. The World Health Organization has warned that the next COVID variant will be more contagious than omicron, but we do not know if it will be more deadly.

The CDC is warning Americans to wear the “most protective mask possible,” stopping short of recommending N95 masks. Nevertheless, Anthony Fauci has warned that Omicron will “find just about everybody,” but the the vaccinated should still be protected.

A new COVID variant has been discovered in Cyprus, which has a genetic background similar to the delta variant but with 10 of omicron’s mutations present. The Moderna CEO said that we will likely need a second booster shot as vaccine efficacy wanes, and the new variant will likely speed that.

President Biden has doubled the federal order of Pfizer’s new COVID pill, along with expediting their shipment and distribution as omicron surges. COVID cases have spiked 948% in Florida, while 7-day hospitalizations have increased by 40% (between Christmas and New Years alone). The omicron vaccine is ripping through the population at an alarming rate, which has led to a spike in children being sent to the hospital.

The United States has clocked nearly half a million COVID cases, a high for any country at any time during the pandemic. Within the last week, 1 in 50 Manhattan residents have been infected with COVID, a sign of just how infectious the new variant is. Meanwhile, France is reporting record high COVID cases as omicron sweeps through Europe.

So far, omicron has been detected in 89 countries, and cases are doubling every 1.5-3 days in places experiencing community transmission. According to a new study, the omicron variant is no safer than the delta variant, and it is five times more likely to reinfect people who have already had COVID.

The Omicron variant grows 70x faster than the delta variant, which may account for its fast spread. In the final analysis of its COVID pill, Pfizer says the drug is highly effective, even against Omicron, and it should be released before the end of the year.

Before Omicron, Pfizer reported a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and death in high-risk COVID patients. In terms of the vaccine, Pfizer’s CEO announced that the government ordered enough COVID vaccine doses for every child aged 5 to 11 in the country. That’s about to be put to the test––kids have started getting the COVID vaccine.

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