It was rather a grayish day, but I went out nonetheless to scout the hike scheduled for the Capital Hiking Club along Riverbend and Great Falls Parks. Even on days with dun-colored skies the falls in Mather’s Gorge never fail to cause an instinctive thrill. As usual, the scene was enlivened by the sight of kayakers in their colorful vessels and life-vests navigating the narrow straits and pools of foaming water among the falls. I’m happy to say that the exercises prescribed by the physical therapist have already caused the knee pain to disappear completely and that I no longer have the slight hobble in my gait that has been troubling me for the past couple of weeks. It was a worthwhile excursion: I have not been therefore for several months, and I had forgotten the details about accessing the Bootlegger Trail, which runs between the two parks. The hiking directions have been revised accordingly.
Data about the omicron variant are starting to emerge and the results to date confirm the initial impressions: the more variant is more transmissible and can overcome vaccine protection more readily than other variants, but it is also a good deal less virulent, particularly among the vaccinated. The current surge in hospitalizations is primarily due to the delta variant, whose case numbers are still increasing. Hospital admissions in South Africa for the omicron variant have a rate of 58 per 1,000 infections, the lowest of the four COVID waves, and one-third of what was experienced during the delta surge. The cases of those who did end up in the hospital were significantly less severe. Fewer of the coronavirus patients required oxygen and ventilation, and the proportion that required intensive care or ended up in the ICU dropped from 30% to about 13%. Moreover, people seemed to recover more quickly from omicron compared to delta, whether they were in the hospital or not. Outside the hospitals, many recovered in quite a short period, 3-4 days on the average.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 273,958,134; # of deaths worldwide: 5,360,416; # of cases U.S.: 51,609,170; # of deaths; U.S.: 826,675.