As people get ready to ring in 2022, health officials are warning that large gatherings could become super spreaders of the coronavirus.
“If you have large groups of people where you don’t know who is vaccinated and you are not screening for symptoms, somebody is going to come with Omicron and it is so much more contagious and you are going to have a super spreader event,” said Dr. James Castillo, Cameron County health authority.
New COVID-19 cases in Americans of all ages have skyrocketed to the highest levels on record: an average of 300,000 per day, or 2 1/2 times the figure just two weeks ago. The highly contagious Omicron accounted for 59% of new cases last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Associated Press reported.
Although there are early indications that the Omicron virus is less severe than the delta variant, “it doesn’t mean it is a benign disease, it doesn’t mean that oh nobody gets sick or nobody dies from it, that is not true,” Castillo said.
“I think people should really consider their risks, they really need to consider what would be the consequences to them and their families if they got COVID, if they got COVID from New Year’s is it worth it, and then they can decide how they want to behave on New Year’s,” Castillo said.
Some large New Year’s Eve celebrations have been scaled back in fear that they could lead to additional cases of the virus. In Pharr, the city canceled its New Year’s Eve Ball Drop event due to the recent Omicron variant outbreak.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, warned that large gatherings could lead to further spread of the virus and added that smaller gatherings would be fine providing everyone was not only vaccinated but had received their booster shots as well.
But “if your plans are to go to a 40- to 50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year, I would strongly recommend that this year we not do that,” he said, the Associated Press reported.
