Americans who were hoping to begin 2022 with a step into normalcy are having a hard time breaking free from the pandemic-driven chaos of the past two years.
The omicron variant of Covid-19 is spreading throughout the country, with an unprecedented 10 million people diagnosed with the virus over the past seven days. While hospitalization and death rates are relatively low compared with the height of the pandemic when vaccines were unavailable, and many of the infected people report only mild symptoms, the surge in cases has nevertheless disrupted travel, schooling and work.
In New York state, where daily Covid-19 infections shattered a record on Saturday, the highly transmissible omicron variant had forced Wall Street firms to rethink their plans for bringing workers back into the office—threatening the nascent recovery in Manhattan’s commercial real estate market. Thousands of flights have been canceled as ongoing Covid-19 issues among airline workers were compounded by winter storms. Anxious parents are grappling with whether to send their kids back to school and risk illness. It’s all putting a damper on the new year—though in markets, equities are rising and Tesla Inc. is soaring.
“We’re all a little bit afraid to be optimistic because it just seems like every time we have a little bit of hope, then things change again,” said Taylor Calderone in New Jersey.
The 37-year-old mother planned to send her kids back to in-person schooling in January, after having homeschooled them since the pandemic began. Her 8-year-old and 6-year-old both got vaccinated right before winter break, but the new surge in omicron cases means she decided to keep them home. Their school system isn’t offering a remote option, she said.
Calderone said she was hoping to finally give her kids the chance at a normal childhood experience, especially the socialization that elementary school provides. But after canceling holiday gathering plans and watching cases tick up, she decided it wasn’t worth the risk.
In New York especially, parents of the more than 1 million public school students are struggling with such decisions, as schools remain open. Mayor Eric Adams has tried to reassure parents that returning is safe, but the lack of testing requirements is a cause for concern for some.
Ronnie Almonte, a 32-year-old science teacher in New York, said that both kids’ and educators’ health is being put at risk unnecessarily without a remote schooling option.
“I feel like I didn’t come into this year with a ‘new year, new attitude’ kind of thing because the pandemic is still happening,” he said. “As soon as the city decided to loosen protections we got this wave.”
For some office workers, little clarity on in-person requirements over the long term at their companies is sowing confusion and uncertainty. Among Wall Street firms, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is asking all U.S. staffers to work from home until Jan. 18 and Citigroup Inc. is telling employees to work remotely for the first few weeks of the year. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. doesn’t foresee employees having “a safe opportunity to be together in our offices” until at least Jan. 31.
Steve DeBenedetto, a 40-year-old from New Jersey who works for an information technology sales company in New York, would normally meet customers around the tristate area. Now, he plans on spending at least the remainder of the month working from home and conducting any business through Zoom.