It was on March 11, 2020 that the reality of the pandemic was driven home for many Americans, in large part because that was the day the National Basketball Association abruptly shut down its 2019-20 season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Even casual sports fans knew it was unprecedented for one of the world's most popular and profitable sports leagues to shut down indefinitely for any reason in the middle of a season. The decision was among the first of many steps the country—and the world—took into the unknown.
Now, sports leagues may once again be the harbingers of what's to come. The NBA as well as the National Hockey League have both suspended at least one team's games amid recent outbreaks to try and contain the spread. The NHL is being particularly hard hit: the Calgary Flames' season is essentially on hold amid an outbreak among players and staff, the New York Islanders—seen early on as a potential Stanley Cup contender this year—have yet to recover from losses incurred while key players were in COVID protocol, and the Ottawa Senators also had several of their games postponed.
That the NHL is having such trouble with the virus is especially noteworthy given that only four players—not four percent of players, just four individual players—have yet to be vaccinated, meaning the bulk of the hockey league's recent outbreaks are being driven by breakthrough cases. The U.S. is doing a phenomenally bad job of tracking breakthroughs, but based on the data we do have—in combination with anecdotal evidence—it's evident that breakthroughs are becoming widespread. Such cases generally don't lead to severe illness, but, because shutdowns and similar measures are typically tied to overall case rates, even mild breakthrough cases stand to upend our lives, whether we're a pro athlete or just a parent with a kid who needs to be quarantined for 10 days because a classmate tested positive.
Of course, many of the hundreds of thousands of cases being reported daily in the U.S. right now are not breakthroughs. The U.S. just marked its 800,000 death from COVID-19—a number that's on pace to hit 1 million in the coming months—and the vast majority of those dying from the virus are unvaccinated. Major outbreaks across the Northeast and Midwest are once again forcing hospitals to consider rationing care, governors are issuing fresh mask mandates and other protective measures, and schools like Cornell University are shutting down amid alarming spikes. And all this is before the Omicron variant has truly taken hold here, meaning the coming weeks and months stand to once again get pretty grim.
As always, the best thing you can do to protect yourself and help prevent another catastrophic spike is to get vaccinated, and if you have not yet done so, to get your booster shot. Given the early data regarding the Omicron variant, I would even argue that you should no longer consider yourself "fully vaccinated" if you have not yet gotten your third dose—it's increasingly clear that, when it comes to this variant in particular, three doses are needed to neutralize the threat. Given that only about a quarter of the country's 55.1 million people with two doses have received another, that's a whole lot of fuel for the impending Omicron fire.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
More than 597 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which more than 486 million doses have been administered, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 61% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 271.4 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 5.3 million people have died. On Dec. 14, there were 666,719 new cases and 8,022 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 50.2 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 800,300 people have died. On Dec. 14, there were 113,749 new cases and 1,629 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Dec. 15, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Omicron variant, which is spreading rapidly through the United States, is contributing to a new spike that should peak in January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an update yesterday. The variant only accounts for about 3% of cases sequenced nationwide so far, but that's a sevenfold increase in just a single week. CDC officials now fear that a combined Delta- and Omicron-fueled wave could overwhelm hospital systems across the country in the coming weeks.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning home early from a trip to Southeast Asia after a reporter traveling alongside him tested positive, CNN reports. While Blinken himself has not tested positive for the virus, the situation underscores the difficulty of conducting in-person international diplomacy as the pandemic continues to rage across the world.
An unprecedented number of lawmakers in U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's own Conservative Party voted against his latest steps to curb viral spread amid an Omicron-fueled outbreak, the New York Times reports. The intraparty fighting over the measures, which include a vaccine requirement for large crowds, comes as other leaders across the world will also have to grapple with domestic opposition and pandemic fatigue as yet another wave takes hold.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Alex Fitzpatrick and edited by Angela Haupt.
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