By now, everyone has surely heard of the new variant of the COVID-19 virus, Omicron. That’s pronounced Ah-mih-crawn, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary. It’s spreading like wildfire, in part because of its trademark lack of major symptoms. People don’t know that they have it and should be quarantining, so they pass it right on to anyone they come in contact with. It’s a good time to be vaccinated, folks. The numbers are skyrocketing, which is unsurprising, but people are surprised at the consequences of the spread.

Restaurants, such as Monical’s and Joe’s are closing doors for in-house dining. Monical’s seems to be struggling with staffing, due mostly to quarantined employees, and Joes is trying to mitigate the risk to employees and customers alike by shutting down the highest point of contact. Joe’s indoor dining is closed from January 2nd to January 11th.

Some restaurants don’t seem to be as concerned, like McDonald’s. They will not be closing their lobby. They will, however, be testing all  employees weekly. Reportedly, these tests will be paid for by the employees themselves.

There have been so many opinions on what the right steps to take over the past few years. Numbers are still climbing and people are looking for ways to slow it, but many are saying, why bother? Omicron seems to be less life-threatening, and some say that the answer is to just let everyone catch it. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the variant though, and who’s to say the next one isn’t worse? This could go on forever, and if there are ways to minimize losses, why wouldn’t we do our best to avoid being sick?

As of 1/6/2022, in Crawford County there have been 4051 confirmed cases with 52 deaths.