Coronavirus Briefing: The Omicron Olympics – The New York Times

• Reports of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. are rapidly declining, though they remain well above the levels seen in any prior surge.

• Omicron infections led to a smaller share of hospitalizations than Delta, a C.D.C. report found.

• Israeli experts recommended offering a fourth vaccine dose to people age 18 and over.

• Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker.

Omicron and the Olympics

The combination of the Winter Olympics and Omicron may pose the biggest test yet for China’s strict “zero Covid” precautions.

In Beijing, officials are wrestling with an outbreak of the new variant just as the city begins its final preparations to host the Games, which begin on Feb. 4. Today, Olympic officials confirmed a coronavirus case connected to a foreign athlete or team official who is part of the country’s bubble setup to prepare for the Olympics.

“Until the last several weeks, lockdowns seemed quite effective, in the sense that in outbreak after outbreak, they were able to wrestle the virus under control,” said my colleague Keith Bradsher, who covers China. “But Omicron is so transmissible that there are real signs that they’re having trouble especially in Beijing itself, which now has outbreaks of both Delta and Omicron.”

I spoke to Keith about how the country is preparing to run the Olympics in the age of Omicron.

You’re in Beijing now. How are things changing in the run-up to the Olympics?

Beijing is on high alert for Covid cases. China will allow thousands of people to enter the country for the Olympics without going through a three-week stringent quarantine, provided they are vaccinated. And that is highly unusual, because for nearly two years China has quarantined practically everyone entering the country.

There is a strong determination to make sure that there is no contact whatsoever between the people coming into the Olympic bubble from overseas and the general Beijing population. They have even told residents that if while driving they are in a collision with a vehicle carrying athletes, coaches, trainers, journalists or others associated with the Olympics, then they should stay away from those people after the collision to avoid any chance of their getting infected by them.

How are they approaching virus restrictions and the Olympics?

They’ve taken elaborate measures so that athletes don’t mix with the referees, who in turn don’t mix with journalists. They’re trying to keep each of these groups of people separate — including separate passageways at venues — to minimize cross-infection.

There are, for example, buses with thick plastic screens separating drivers from the people who come in from overseas. Those buses move Olympics participants among hotels and venues. And even then, the drivers must live in quarantine and have no contact with the rest of the Chinese population during the Olympics. Practically everyone from China who is involved with the Olympics will need to quarantine after the Games before they can re-enter society in China.

The authorities said a week ago that they will not be selling any tickets to Chinese residents to the Olympics. The authorities had already said last year that no tickets would be sold to anyone from overseas. So, for example, at outdoor grandstands at places like the ski jump, the people in the stands will be part of organized groups, which probably means they will go into the bubble and live there and go to events and then go through quarantine coming out. The authorities have also suggested that audiences clap, but not yell.

Is Omicron changing China’s “zero Covid” policy?

We’ve seen slight changes, but China is still pursuing very stringent policies.

Today, a district of Beijing with more than two million people banned public gatherings after eight cases were found there on Monday. Xi’an, a city of 13 million people, was completely locked down from Dec. 22 until Monday. Shanghai authorities recently locked down more than 200 people in an office building, even requiring many to sleep there overnight while awaiting testing.

The authorities do sometimes experiment with precise, almost surgical lockdowns in an attempt to limit the nuisance factor for the public while still trying to get these outbreaks under control. A single tea shop of a little over 200 square feet in Shanghai was recently designated as a risk area. People who had been to the tea shop had to be tested, and they had their movements restricted. A barber shop next door was allowed to continue operating, however.

Why is China willing to take the risk of hosting the Olympics in the age of Omicron?

This is a prestigious event for which China has been preparing for seven years. China wants to show that it can hold the Games on time and without unleashing the pandemic into China’s population. Their neighbors in Japan delayed the Olympics by a year, but China is determined to go ahead.

The biggest dilemma for China is that it has used only inactivated vaccines to inoculate its population. There is a lot of evidence that mRNA vaccines, while not fully effective against Omicron, are a lot more effective than inactivated vaccines. So if China does get a sustained outbreak, then you could really have a terrible problem, which is why they’re being very careful.

People are very nervous now that we have cases in big cities like Shanghai and particularly in Beijing, and many of the Olympic participants have not even arrived yet. There is definitely pride in how much better China has done in controlling the virus after the initial outbreak in Wuhan two years ago. But that pride is now tempered or tinged with strong worries about what might come next.

• Two doctors write in The Times Opinion section that China’s Covid policy is a pandemic waiting to happen.

Democrats’ new virus message

Many Democratic politicians saw their popularity soar when they aggressively shut down cities during the early phases of the pandemic. But today, they’re using a different playbook.

Despite the Omicron wave, mayors and other officials are largely skipping mask mandates and are fighting to keep schools open — sometimes in opposition to health care workers and their traditional allies in teachers’ unions.

The pivot reflects a shifting understanding of the Covid threat, now that millions of Americans are vaccinated and Omicron appears to be causing less severe disease, my colleagues Trip Gabriel, Lisa Lerer and Jennifer Medina report.

Democrats are keenly aware that many Americans — including even some of the party’s loyal liberal voters — have changed their attitudes about the virus. It could be perilous, they think, to let Republicans brand the Democrats as the party of lockdowns and mandates.

“You’ll see more Democratic elected officials say that this is our forever now, and we can’t live our lives sitting rocking in a corner,” said Brian Stryker, a partner at the polling firm ALG Research. “We’ve just got to live with this virus.”

• In The Morning newsletter, poll data show the way that both Democrats and Republicans have their own skewed understanding of Covid’s risks.

Your vacation recommendations

The past two years have taught us a few things about traveling during a pandemic.

It’s now clear that it’s important to plan well in advance, understand virus regulations for where you’re traveling, be flexible with your plans and book early. We also learned that some of the best getaways are close to home.

During earlier waves of the coronavirus pandemic, local vacation spots were seen as a safer option — and many of them burst to life during the tourist season.

It’s hard to predict, however, what the next year will look like for travel. So as we think about travel in the coming year, we’re asking readers for recommendations for great local vacation destinations. We’d also like to hear about how people who have recovered from the Omicron variant are thinking about their travel options.