On December 1, 2021, the first case of Omicron was detected in the U.S. Omicron, named by the CDC, is a variant of Covid-19, and a very infectious one at that. According to data from the University of Washington, it is projected that at least three billion people will be infected with this new strand of Covid-19.

“You know when you get a really bad cold, and you feel lousy, and there’s mostly the upper respiratory-type symptoms is more what we’re seeing now,” Dr. Carole Freiberger, a physician at Saint Luke’s Critical care, stated.

However, despite its very infectious rate, this variant has been reported to be “less severe”, but what that term means is unknown to little people. The term ‘less severe’ comes from a preliminary study conducted by Case Western Reserve University which found that those in hospital care during the surge of omicron is about half the risk of those observed during the surge of delta. This variant is particularly different from others of Covid-19 because instead of attacking the lungs, this variant is more seen as a common cold; most symptoms being a runny nose, congestion, and a sore throat. The harsh cough seen with many other patients of the Delta variant isn’t seen with Omicron, as the cough is milder, and fever isn’t as common. Not to mention that the classic signs of a person being infected with Covid-19,the loss of taste and smell, were not as common with the omicron variant. 

It has been detected that more than 90% of recent Covid-19 cases in the state of Colorado have been of the Omicron variant.  More local to Mesa County, the first three documented omicron variants on December 29, 2021, were reported to be two people under the age of 60, with one being a teenager. According to the Mesa County Public Health website, Jan 11, 2022 had documentation of 451 cases, having a 17.3% positive one-week average of positivity. Most cases have been reported to be from the unvaccinated, approximately 79% being unvaccinated. This has been a massive spike in the local area, and people all over are wondering if the schools are going to shut down due to the recent spike. Nevertheless, the CDC still advises people to mask up and get their vaccine, especially with hospital beds running low all over.