73% of Americans are ‘immune’ to the Omicron variant

The Omicron COVID-19 surge is continuing to wind down, and it is unlikely that the strain that took over the world late last year will get another opportunity to take hold in the U.S.

An analysis conducted by the Associated Press (AP) finds that 73 percent of Americans now have some immunity to the Omicron variant. Between the 80 million of Americans who have been infected by the variant, and the 92 million Americans that have received a COVID-19 booster shot, it is estimated that a large portion of Americans have significant protection against infection.

The variant’s trouble finding more people to infect is being reflected in daily case counts. Cases are down another 42 percent over the past week, with the U.S. now averaging 128,989 new cases every day. America is now a month removed from the surge reaching its peak of around 800,000 cases per day in mid-January and there is nothing to indicate that cases will not continue falling.

‘We have changed… we have been exposed to this virus and we know how to deal with it,’ Dr Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, told the AP.

Declining cases have many experts believing the pandemic stage of Covid may be over, and a ‘return to normal’ could be just around the corner. The list of states to drop restrictions related to the virus is continuing to grow as well, as pressure mounts on governors to put the pandemic behind them.

This week, new Virginia Gov Glenn Youngkin is pushing his state’s legislators to end required masks in schools on March 1. The Republican, who won last year’s election in a surprise upset over former Gov Terry McAullife, made school issues like masking a key part of his platform last year.

Dr Rochelle Walensky (pictured) declined said at a Covid briefing Wednesday that her agency was still monitoring metrics but would not lift mask  guidelines. There reports that the agency is considering it internally, though

Vermont Gov Phil Scott, also a Republican in a state generally considered to be ‘blue’, announced Tuesday that any school that has a student vaccination rate of 80 percent or higher was allowed to lift mask mandates as well. Masks will likely be removed from all indoor public spaces in the near future as well.

‘Although we remain optimistic about the trends we’re seeing in Vermont, we’re not ready to jump to a recommendation of removal of masks altogether, but I expect that recommendation will be coming at some point,’ Dan French, the state’s education secretary, said. 

The two states join more than a half-dozen others that chose to either relax or lift entirely their mask orders last week in the wake of declining Covid case basically everywhere in America.

Federal leaders have been hesitant to follow, though. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still recommends universal masking in public schools and requires people to wear masks when traveling on planes and trains.

Officials opened the door to lifting restrictions soon during a press briefing on Wednesday, though. White House Covid response Coordinator Jeff Zients indicated that the federal government is already looking to life beyond Covid.

‘As a result of all this progress and the tools we all have, we’re moving toward a time when Covid isn’t a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat,’ Zients said. 

‘The president and our Covid team are actively planning for this future.’ 

Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, did not indicate at the briefing that her agency planned to change guidelines soon, though there are reports that it is being considered and changes could come as early as next week.

‘We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen,’ Walensky explained.

‘If and when we update our guidance, we will communicate that clearly. And it will be based on the data and the science.

One of the key metrics being monitored by the CDC is daily deaths from the virus, a figure that is finally starting to decline after lagging behind cases for a long period of time.  The U.S. is averaging 2,213 Covid deaths every day, an eight percent drop over the past week.