Autumn, Winter, Christmas, New Year. It seems so normal.
Yet, like a paper cut, there is a constant throbbing of pain. Quiet, persistent. The Pandemic. We bought tickets to New York for Christmas. The Delta variant was subsiding and vaccinations were working, so the Japanese government lowered the 14 day quarantine to 10 days. Tokyo was reporting only 19 cases a day in a metropolitan population of 39 million.
You know where this is going, right?
November 24th - The Omicron Variant. We did not fly home. We did get a booster shot on Christmas Day.
COVID Summary - January 4, 2022. Tokyo had 390 cases. (Metropolitan population: 39 million) Two weeks ago, there were only 19 cases. Japan reported 2,638 cases. (Japan Population: 126 million) On the other hand, the United States reported 885, 541 cases on the same day. (United States Population: 330 million) On November 28th, there were only 23,950 cases reported in the United States. The United States reports that 96% of the new cases are the Omicron variant.
Update: March 10, 2022. We have gone through a ‘6th Wave,’ where case numbers in Tokyo were as high as in the 20,000 a day. The numbers still have not gone low enough to make the health authorities relax. On March 19, Tokyo had 10,823 cases. While in the United States, the numbers have decreased to the point that many communities have ended a mask mandate, Tokyo is on an extended quasi-emergency limiting the hours of restaurants. People are still wearing masks. Having said that, this variant has been less deadly, though people who have been vaccinated still get the virus.
