With Omicron’s Rise, Americans Brace for Returning to School and Work
The New York Times
The highly contagious variant has already contributed to flight cancellations and staffing shortages.
In two short weeks, as the year closed out, the Omicron variant drove coronavirus case counts to record levels, upended air travel and left gaping staffing holes at police departments, firehouses and hospitals.
And that was at a time many people were off for the holiday season. Now comes Monday, with millions of Americans having traveled back home to start school and work again, and no one is sure of what comes next.
Most of the nation’s largest school districts have decided to forge ahead and remain open, at least for the time being, citing the toll that remote learning has taken on students’ mental health and academic success. And the rising number of cases has not been followed by a significant increase in hospitalizations and deaths, a hopeful sign that the Omicron variant seems to cause fewer cases of severe illness.