COVID-19 Omicron variant

…version of the virus: the Omicron variant, which resulted in record levels of infections and raised the number of COVID-19-related deaths in Australia to more than 2,700. Nevertheless, by February it too had abated, and Morrison announced that the country was ready to enter the final phase of the return…

…version of the virus, the Omicron variant, which resulted in record levels of infections and raised the number of Australians who died from COVID-19-related causes to more than 2,700. After cresting in mid-January, the Omicron wave relented, and by February Morrison had told the country that it was ready to…

Later, in late 2021, the Omicron variant rapidly became the dominant strain in many regions, including the United Kingdom and the United States. Although Omicron spread more easily than Delta, it generally caused milder symptoms in most people; however, it still resulted in substantial numbers of hospitalizations, especially among individuals…

…most notable of which is Omicron, which was first detected in Botswana in November 2021 and quickly became the primary circulating strain globally. Omicron spawned multiple sublineages of concern, including BA.4 and BA.5, which are highly infectious, and BA.2, which gave rise to XBB.1.5—a highly transmissible variant, noted for its…

…the more infectious Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19—which crested in New Zealand in November 2021 and (exponentially more explosively) March 2022, respectively—forced Ardern to abandon her “zero COVID” policy. The focus of her government’s response to the pandemic shifted from lockdowns to an emphasis on vaccination and acceptance of…

Although the breakout of the Omicron variant later drove up case numbers to dramatically higher levels than those of the first surge, by June 2022 more than 80 percent of Taiwanese had been fully vaccinated, more than 60 percent had also received boosters, and the island largely had shifted to…