COURT HOUSE – With case counts dropping quickly and a weary public increasingly unwilling to maintain pandemic level controls, the new move is living with Covid.
This week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his state’s living with Covid plan. Four days later, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did the same.
What does living with Covid entail? It involves a rollback of pandemic level controls. Mask mandates, isolation controls, restrictions on travel, and more are all eased in favor of treating Covid as though it were the seasonal flu.
In Britain, Johnson’s announcement coincided with his need to send best wishes to Queen Elizabeth II, who is experiencing mild symptoms from a Covid infection.
Plans in California call for a heavy focus on home testing, rapid sequencing for new variants, and the ability to speedily deploy staff and additional treatment capabilities to any area with a perceived outbreak.
In a “Meet the Press” interview, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said, “We are not going to manage this to zero. We have to learn to live with this.”
These comments came as New Jersey is still in the midst of a state-declared health emergency, is still two weeks away from ending its state-imposed school mask mandates and is under remaining requirements for certain workers to be fully vaccinated or subject to frequent testing. Murphy has yet to unveil a living with Covid plan.
Cape May County Numbers
The Cape May County Health Department report for Feb. 18 showed continued ebbing of the omicron-induced surge in new cases that began in late summer and accelerated as winter set in.
The county reports a total of 171 active community cases, the lowest since before Thanksgiving; 76 new cases in the seven-day period leading up to the report is the lowest weekly total of new infections since July.
Hospitalizations are down across the seven-county southern region, with Cape Regional Medical Center, in Court House, reporting only one admitted Covid patient Feb. 21.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 73% of the county population is fully vaccinated. State dashboard numbers on booster shots show roughly 46% of those fully vaccinated have had a booster shot. The CDC calculates a transmission rate for the county of 0.56, the lowest it has been for almost a year.
The most vulnerable remain in danger. The county report announced the death of four residents, with an average age of 84 years.
Schools are doing well, with less than 2% of the student population excluded from in-person instruction due to Covid infection or exposure. With the state mask mandate for schools and child care centers ending March 7, individual school districts have been left with the responsibility of determining whether restrictions stay in place.
A question concerning masking on the Herald’s Facebook page yielded support for and against masking in the schools, with the preponderance of replies being in favor of ending the mandate.
The Road Forward
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky said Feb. 9 that the agency was looking at updating its masking advice. She added that the current guidance “meets the moment that we’re in.” News reports say that the CDC will alter its mask guidance to states as early as this week.
Increasing public desire for a return to some form of normal makes retaining pandemic level restrictions politically difficult. The push for easing, or even removing, restrictions will be difficult to resist.
The moves to end restrictions come as some public health officials continue to warn of waning immunity from both vaccines and infections. Acceptance of booster shots is still lower than health officials hoped.
The Kaiser Family Foundation Covid tracking report shows 43% of the public reporting having received a booster shot. Health officials have expressed support for future booster shots, with one perhaps as early as this fall.
The question remains whether the public will support booster shots as a way of avoiding other restrictions or have the waning case numbers produced a sense that the emergency is over.
One potential indicator of booster acceptance is the flu vaccine. The CDC flu vaccine dashboard Jan. 8 reported that 53% of those eligible for a flu shot received one.
One thing seems certain. Living with Covid likely does not mean returning to 2019. The disruption from the pandemic on work patterns, interpersonal interactions, and living arrangements will have long-term effects. Perhaps the most enduring may be the impact of the pandemic on political discourse.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
