With the new year, there has been a surge in COVID-19 cases due to the new Omicron variant. The surge in cases has affected all men and women, old and young, and is more contagious than the other variants of the Coronavirus. This surge has been the most widespread out of all of the surges of COVID-19 cases according to the CDC (Center For Disease Control and Prevention). In the past 30 days, there have been a total of 74,282,892 new cases worldwide due to the Omicron variant.

The Omicron variant is affecting all people, including those who are vaccinated—even though 250,029,773 eligible recipients have received the vaccine, which is 75,3% of the United States population. Although the vaccine won’t stop people from contracting COVID-19, it will lower the severity of symptoms and decrease the likelihood of death. 

Early studies suggest that there is a lower risk of being hospitalized by the Omicron variant than its other counterpart variants such as the Delta variant. Although it seems to be less deadly, infection rates have proven it is much more contagious.  Many people are asymptomatic after contracting this new form of the virus, and this has helped infection rates increase. Because people are not experiencing noticeable symptoms, they are unaware they have  COVID-19. 

This surge has also caused many school districts around the United States to shift to remote learning, instead of in-person learning, in order to avoid their students contracting the virus and spreading it to others. 

Another imposing problem from this surge is how health care workers are becoming scarce due to some staff being released. This is because there are new mandates set in place, forcing all healthcare workers to be vaccinated. The ones who chose not to get vaccinated are being let go. With the current surge, the leftover health care workers are being put under a lot of stress due to emergency rooms and hospital beds being filled up because of  COVID-19 cases and slowing down hospitals. 

In the state of California, there has been a total of 7,629,666 cases, and most have been from the age group of 18-34. The second age group with the most cases are young children and teens from the age of 5-17. They account for 47.8% of cases in California. It is affecting people who go outside of their house, whether it’s for school or for work. Cases are expected to drop in the upcoming weeks according to medical researchers.