Texas reports its first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant

[TexasTowelie]

Source: Texas Tribune

Texas has identified its first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant, a strain flagged as potentially more infectious than any that has come before it, including the delta variant responsible for surges still happening across the country, state health officials said on Monday.

The variant was identified in Texas in a Harris County woman in her 40s, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services and county Judge Lina Hidalgo.

Many questions still surround omicron, even as it remains high on the radar of state and federal health officials.

While early indicators suggest the variant is very contagious, it’s still unknown whether it will infect people at a faster rate than the delta variant, which currently represents nearly all the active cases in Texas. Little is also known about the severity of disease the omicron variant causes.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/06/texas-omicron-covid-19/

[IronLionZion]

1. People everywhere will be sharing it this holiday season

since sharing is caring.

[progree]

2. As it has been in 17 other U.S. states. Surprising that the 2nd most populous state has taken this

long to find one.

https://www.google.com/search?q=number+of+u.s.+states+that+have+detected+omicron&oq=number+of+u.s.+states+that+have+detected+omicron&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160.9530j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

=============================================

I wrote the below Saturday early A.M. (Since then, Saturday and Sunday have come in higher than any of their respective days going back many weeks, so the 7 day average has continued to climb, as have the 14 day comparisons. As I write this, the Monday cases have not yet been included in the nytimes site (link below), they usually are by 10 PM CT.). To be clear, these are all Covid-19 cases, not any one particular variant. Omicron cases are almost nil in these numbers, so this is kind of scary as we will be gaining omicron cases faster than we lose delta cases for a while, in other words it won't be one-to-one displacement for a while. And the Omicron cases will be on top of an ongoing grim surge of Covid-19 cases that began October 25.

====== Written Saturday A.M. =====================

Meanwhile, U.S. 7 day new case avg is now highest since Oct. 3, reversing 2 months of progress

U.S. and Minn. both break past their pre-Thanksgiving 7 day mvg avg peaks in daily new cases

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
(no paywall no quota. The "Last 90 days" button above the graph is extremely helpful)

The U.S. as a whole -- 7 day moving average of daily new cases has surpassed the pre-Thanksgiving peak and is now the highest since Oct 3, reversing exactly 2 months of progress.

Top 10 in Daily new cases per capita, 7 day moving average (again as of Saturday early am)

#1 New Hampshire
#2 Minnesota
#3 Michigan
#4 Wisconsin
#5 Rhode Isl
#6 NoDak
#7 Vermont
#8 Ohio
#9 Indiana
#10 Massachusetts

31 states have rising cases, 18 are falling, and 1 flat over 14 days,
for a 31-18-1 record

As for Minnesota, the 7 day average is the highest its been since December 11, reversing very nearly a year's worth of progress.

[TexasTowelie]

3. I recall that the southern states were bashed about their infection rates

less than three months ago on this site. I've noticed that there hasn't been much northern state bashing now that the pandemic has moved northward.

[IronLionZion]

4. Even liberally vaccinated Vermont is getting it hard now

which is very disappointing for vaccinated liberals. For the southern states it was easy to blame conservatives who refused masks or vaccines or social distance.

[progree]

8. Me too. When southern states were reporting very high case loads this summer, everyone was

gleefully reporting on this as fact. Then when they are amongst the lowest in the country in winter, as expected (same pattern happened last year, old movie -- highest case rates in the summer and lowest in the winter), suddenly they aren't so believable anymore as you can see downthread (assertions without links). It gets so very tiresome.

[progree]

5. Monday numbers now included: U.S. is highest its been in new cases since Sept. 25

Last edited Tue Dec 7, 2021, 02:15 PM - Edit history (1)

reversing nearly 2 1/2 months of progress. Up 71% from the Oct 25 low.

It's particularly sad because the Monday (Nov 29) that dropped out of the 7 day moving average period was one that was somewhat artificially high because it had some backlogged cases reported from the Thanksgiving weekend. I was hoping that when that Monday dropped off, the 7 day moving average might go down a bit. But no, Monday Dec 6 was even higher than Mon Nov 29.

Tuesday (today) is another day to watch as the previous Tuesday (Nov 30) also has some Thanksgiving 4-day weekend backlogged cases. When Tues Nov 30 drops out of the moving average, it might cause the average to move down....

Anyway, Tuesday's the last day where special circumstances might help out on the 7 day average. Until we get into Christmas when we will again likely have a sizable drop (due to less testing and delayed reporting), like we had with Thanksgiving for a short while.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html
(no paywall no quota. The "Last 90 days" button above the graph is extremely helpful. The map is not to be missed)

Top 16 in Daily new cases per capita, 7 day moving average (includes Monday Dec 6 cases)

#1 New Hampshire
#2 Michigan
#3 Minnesota
#4 Rhode Island
#5 Vermont
#6 New Mexico
#7 Wisconsin
#8 Indiana
#9 Massachusetts
#10 Ohio
#11-#16: NoDak, SoDak, Kansas, W.Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania

==========================

As for what states are changing in 7-day new case averages: For one, the South is increasing again. All of the southern states are increasing.

The only states that are decreasing: Iowa, Washington, Idaho, Maine, Wyoming, Colorado, Hawaii, Alaska, Montana

2 states are flat. The other 39 states are rising. For a 39-9-2 record.

Increasing means the 7 day moving average ending December 6 is higher than the 7 day moving average ending November 22 (which is 14 days prior to Dec 6).

The world is on fire too -- up 50% since the October 14 low.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html

[ananda]

6. Red states like Texas don't test and report..

the same way states like say Vermont do.

[ashredux]

7. Yea... If you don't test, and don't report, you ain't got no Covid

[raccoon]

9. How could people have Covid if it's a hoax? :sarcasm: nt

[BlueWavePsych]

10. K&R