Coronavirus surging in China

Just a reminder that it isn't over:

China’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since the initial wave of the pandemic worsened Tuesday with a major factory city ordering production halts.

Recent outbreaks in 28 provinces have infected more than 15,000 people and stem primarily from the highly transmissible omicron variant, China’s National Health Commission said Tuesday, according to state media. China has 31 province-level regions.

Although the northern province of Jilin accounts for most of the cases, the latest outbreak has hit major cities such as the financial center of Shanghai and technology manufacturing hub Shenzhen.

Omicron is less lethal, but China tends to respond with autocratic lockdowns, which will have a ripple effect on the world economy.  Embedded image via Bloomberg.

Addendum: Also Europe -

A surge in coronavirus infections in Western Europe has experts and health authorities on alert for another wave of the pandemic in the United States, even as most of the country has done away with restrictions after a sharp decline in cases...

Germany, a nation of 83 million people, saw more than 250,000 new cases and 249 deaths Friday... The Netherlands, home to fewer than 18 million people, was averaging more than 60,000 cases the same day...

In the past two years, a widespread outbreak like the one now being seen in Europe has been followed by a similar surge in the United States some weeks later. Many, but not all, experts interviewed for this story predicted that is likely to happen.

I'm sure Americans will be willing to mask up again and isolate themselves in order to prevent a resurgent pandemic.  Not.