A4 The BulleTin • Tuesday, decemBer 21, 2021
COVID-19
Omicron now 73% of new U.S. cases
BY MIKE STOBBE
associated Press
123rF
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YouthBuild
Continued from A1
The child and youth devel-
opment track works largely the
same way, according to Tanner
Rohne, the program’s trainer. Af-
ter an intensive, two-week orien-
tation, students will spend eight
weeks obtaining key certifications
that allow them to spend the next
eight months applying those skills
in the classrooms of local child
care providers.
“We want to give them the
whole gauntlet of what the pro-
gression of youth go through
from birth through 18. We know
that child development never
stops,” Rohne said. “So we want
to give them the tools needed
to have an open mindset and
a growth mindset to welcome
learning and to push it and thrive
in it.”
After the first year in the pro-
gram, students move into the
child care workforce full time and
continue to receive goal-setting
support and other YouthBuild re-
sources for the second year.
The child and youth devel-
opment track takes place out of
Heart of Oregon Corps’ Red-
mond campus. Participants re-
ceive a daily stipend starting at
$26 a day, plus an AmeriCorps
educational grant of around
$1,600 at the completion of the
program, Rohne said.
Around 425 students have gone
through YouthBuild’s construc-
tion program in Central Oregon,
and 70% were employed after the
program, according to Rohne.
Heart of Oregon had been con-
sidering other possible tracks —
such as health care professions
— for expanding the YouthBuild
program, but Rohne said the
community need was clearest in
the child care workforce.
“We wanted to really bring in
those early entry-level positions
to really get kids in the door and
really see how heart-filled work-
ing with children really is,” Rohne
said. “We feel that we have the
ability to help pull on those heart-
strings and really express and see
the need to get qualified educa-
tors for our youth and our chil-
dren.”
The child and youth develop-
ment track will launch at the end
of January, and the nonprofit is
in now accepting applications for
the program. More information
about applying is available online
at heartoforegon.org/programs.
e
e
Reporter: 541-617-7814,
zdemars@bendbulletin.com
Bulletin reporter Bryce Dole
contributed to this report.
NEW YORK — Omicron has raced
ahead of other variants and is now the
dominant version of the coronavirus
in the U.S., accounting for 73% of new
infections last week, federal health offi-
cials said Monday.
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention numbers showed nearly a
six-fold increase in omicron’s share of
infections in only one week.
In much of the country, it’s even
higher. Omicron is responsible for an es-
timated 90% or more of new infections
in the New York area, the Southeast,
the industrial Midwest and the Pacific
Northwest. The national rate suggests
that more than 650,000 omicron infec-
tions occurred in the U.S. last week.
Since the end of June, the delta vari-
ant had been the main version causing
U.S. infections. As recently as the end
of November, more than 99.5% of coro-
naviruses were delta, according to CDC
data.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky
said the new numbers reflect the kind of
growth seen in other countries.
“These numbers are stark, but they’re
not surprising,” she said.
Scientists in Africa first sounded the
alarm about omicron less than a month
ago, and on Nov. 26 the World Health
Organization designated it as a “vari-
ant of concern.” The mutant has since
shown up in about 90 countries.
Much about the omicron variant re-
mains unknown, including whether it
causes more or less severe illness. Early
studies suggest the vaccinated will need
a booster shot for the best chance at
preventing omicron infection but even
without the extra dose, vaccination still
should offer strong protection against
severe illness and death.
“All of us have a date with omicron,”
said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar
at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health
Security. “If you’re going to interact with
society, if you’re going to have any type
of life, omicron will be something you
encounter, and the best way you can en-
counter this is to be fully vaccinated.”
Adalja said he was not surprised by the
CDC data showing omicron overtaking
delta in the U.S., given what was seen in
South Africa, the U.K. and Denmark. He
predicted spread over the holidays, in-
cluding breakthrough infections among
the vaccinated and serious complications
Jae c. hong/aP
Travelers wait for a shuttle at the Los Angeles International Airport on Monday. Los Ange-
les County’s daily new cases have tripled over the past week. Over the same period, the
U.S. saw hundreds of thousands of new infections as travel ramps up for the holidays.
Biden to address the nation
Four days before christmas, President
Joe Biden on Tuesday will again attempt to
persuade americans to take protections to
fend off the fast-spreading omicron variant.
Biden on Tuesday will strike a more
dire tone than his earlier pleas to get vac-
cinated, having emphasized last week
that unvaccinated americans are facing
“a winter of severe illness and death.” But
White house press secretary Jen Psaki said
monday that the president’s speech is not
“about locking the country down.”
instead, he will announce a plan to set
up testing sites across the country, partly
modeled on the Federal emergency man-
among the unvaccinated that could stress
hospitals already burdened by delta.
Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps
Research Translational Institute, said
other countries had seen omicron’s fast
growth, but the U.S. data showed “a re-
markable jump in such a short time.”
Topol also said it’s unclear how much
milder omicron really is compared with
other variants. “That’s the big uncer-
tainty now,” he said. “We have to count
on it being a lot of hospitalizations and a
lot severe disease from omicron.”
CDC’s estimates are based on thou-
sands of coronavirus specimens col-
lected each week through university
and commercial laboratories and state
and local health departments. Scientists
agement agency-run vaccination sites the
administration deployed during its vac-
cination campaign, according to people
familiar with the plans who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because they were
not authorized to discuss them. The pres-
ident will also detail steps to bolster the
capacity of hospitals, many of which are ex-
pected to be inundated in coming weeks.
The White house also announced mon-
day evening that a “mid-level staffer” had
a breakthrough infection, three days after
the staffer spent 30 minutes in proximity to
Biden on Friday. The president tested nega-
tive on monday and will be tested again on
Wednesday, the White house said.
— The Washington Post
analyze their genetic sequences to deter-
mine which versions of the COVID-19
viruses are most abundant.
On Monday, the CDC revised its es-
timate for omicron cases for the week
that ended Dec. 11, after analyzing more
samples. About 13% of the cases that
week were from omicron, not the 3%
previously reported. The week before,
omicron accounted for just 0.4% of cases.
CDC officials said they do not yet
have estimates of how many hospitaliza-
tions or deaths are due to omicron.
Though there remain a lot of new in-
fections caused by the delta variant, “I
anticipate that over time that delta will
be crowded out by omicron,” Walensky
said.