The Canadian government warned people against international travel because of the new COVID variant. Omicron is way more contagious than Delta, and it’s spreading like wildfire.
That’s bad news for VanIsle. We just had our worst COVID day ever on Wednesday, December 15.
As of December 16, more than half of BC’s Omicron cases are on the Island.
Wonderful.
A lot of COVID on the Island is from a major outbreak at UVic. More than 100 students got sick at two parties and a rugby tournament. Many of them got Omicron.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told folks not to travel internationally. “To those who are planning to travel, I say very clearly, now is not the time.”
Provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix told folks not to go to Ontario and Quebec because they have high rates of Omicron.
But from the looks of things, Omicron is already here.
Staying home might help, but it won’t solve the problem.
Thankfully, countries where Omicron is really bad are already sharing information. Here’s what they are learning.
Two vaccine doses still protect people from getting really sick, but not as well as they did against Delta. If you get a third dose, though, your protection goes way up again.
So getting boosters into arms as fast as possible is vital.
Part of why the vaccines still work is because Omicron still uses the ACE2 receptor to infect your lung cells.
When viruses mutate, they can find new ways to infect human cells. Then we have to start all over again with our vaccines.
So, basically, Omicron is still trying to break in through the front door. It isn’t trying to find a window instead.
The tricky part is, Omicron is way better at picking the lock.
But when you get a third vaccine dose, it’s like adding a deadbolt. Omicron can still get in. It just has to work a lot harder to do so.
We can always stop Omicron the old-fashioned way. Wear a mask. Give folks some extra space.
Maybe keep your Christmas party small. If you have to visit a lot of people, visit them outside.
Does it suck?
For sure. We’re all so bloody tired of this.
But if we keep taking care of each other, we’ll weather this storm too.
