Global news headlines are once again filled with statistics of record-breaking Covid-19 cases. And that includes in countries such as Australia, where previous outbreaks were among the best contained in the world. The country reported a whopping 111,907 new cases on Jan 8 — compared with only 11 this time last year and 1,654 just a month back. Globally, more than two million new cases are being detected each day — and that is most certainly undercounted — owing to the extremely contagious nature of the Omicron variant.
In the US, new cases have topped 700,000 daily for the past seven days, on average. Thousands of flights are being cancelled, elective surgeries are being delayed, some schools are closing in-person learning and many emergency services as well as private businesses are operating below optimal capacity. Once again, we are witnessing huge disruptions affecting both public healthcare systems and across economic sectors — but with one very important difference. A huge majority of the infected — and particularly those who are vaccinated — are asymptomatic or suffering only mild symptoms. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests up to half of admissions at some hospitals are due to issues unrelated to Covid-19, where a positive test result is merely incidental. The disruptions are caused by people calling in sick and/or under home quarantine for close contact — not because they are hospitalised and/or severely ill.
