Omicron = non issue, open it up.
Data continues to support that all of the Omicron talk is much ado about nothing. Cases in UK has peaked and is coming down. Hospital admissions only went up to half of their peak compared to this time last year despite case numbers being triple last year's peak. ICU admissions have actually declined as Omicron has not led to serious illness in a well vaccinated population. Deaths barely budged and likely only due to killing off the last bit of the unvaccinated high risk population. Similar patterns are seen in South Africa.
[URL] https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-08-19..latest&uniformYAxis=0&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Cases%2C+hospital+admissions%2C+ICU+patients%2C+and+deaths&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=GBR~ZAF[/URL]
I suspect Germany to follow the same pattern as the UK if not do even better. If government officials weren't such boneheads, curfews, migration limitations, and business restrictions would be kept minimum or done away with altogether. Sadly, they err on the side of overly cautious.
The United States however, having an inferior primary health system but what I believe a superior acute hospital care system has seen a higher increase in general and ICU admissions but without a rise in deaths.
The big question is, while governments are slow to react to developing situations, when will it be evident to them to lighten the restrictions? My opinion is that enough is enough, no more imposition. If by the end of February, there is not significant liberation in Europe, I would support mob rioting to force government official hands.