I'm wondering how long will it take until quarantines upon positive test are removed. I originally expected that to only happen after COVID becomes endemic, but it's getting unsustainable at the moment. UK will soon have a million people in quarantine at a time (they are currently at 120k+ infections per day) even though most of them are fine and ready to work.
I think the moment when only ill people are going to stay at home, just like with other respiratory viruses, may be closer than I expected.
I have just completed my 7 days isolation yesterday and it's been a bit of a joke. There was only one evening when I actually needed to be in bed, then maybe 2 or 3 days when I had some symptoms but was fully functional otherwise. This was the second time I had COVID and having to stay at home was the only really bad part of the experience in both cases.
Originally Posted by
NewbieRunner
Another factor pointed out by WaPo and other sources is the relatively young population of South Africa where the median age is 28 which is a full decade lower than that in the US.
That's true but I don't think South Africa's population got significantly younger in the last three months so we can compare data before and after omicron. Data from Europe also seem to confirm this narrative with disparity between infections and hospitalisations/deaths growing.