- New cases for all regions (county, state, and national) rose to new record levels in January, but were starting to fall by the end of the month. This spike is considered to be due to the “Omicron” variant of the Corona virus, which is believed to be must more contagious than previous variants.
- The number of deaths in all regions were up slightly during January, despite the spike in new cases. They are starting to rise, but are still not as intense as the number of cases. This is due in part to the fact that Omicron, while more contagious, is not more deadly (and may be less so). The lag in the increases is typical: death rates have tended to go up roughly two weeks after the surge in cases.
- The number of hospitalizations rose in January in Santa Clara County, comparable to the number of new cases.
- We have started tracking number of Covid-related emergency-department visits, thanks to new data being presented by the Santa Clara Public Health department. Since we just started tracking, we have no comparable data for December.