With the rapid rise of a new variant of COVID-19, nicknamed "Kraken," employers should take precautionary measures in their workforces to prevent outbreaks—even though many employees are tired of thinking about COVID-19.
"Many Americans believe that COVID is over or don't care that it isn't," said Marjory Robertson, assistant vice president and senior counsel with Sun Life in Wellesley Hills, Mass.
Nonetheless, "employers should keep an eye on transmission in their community and in the workforce," noted Carrie Hoffman, an attorney with Foley & Lardner in Dallas.
Rapid Spread
The XBB.1.5 omicron variant, or Kraken, is spreading quickly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The revised projection for the number of cases caused by Kraken for the week ending Dec. 31, 2022, was 18 percent of U.S. coronavirus cases, followed by an increase to 28 percent for the week ending Jan. 6.
CDC's COVID-19 guidance about how people can best protect themselves from serious illness remains the same, even as the new variant seems more transmissible. The CDC will continue to investigate the ways in which XBB.1.5 may be different from other omicron lineages.
"Based on experience, XBB and family will continue to increase as a proportion of cases until a variant that is more contagious displaces them," said Jeff Levin-Scherz, M.D., managing director and population health leader at WTW in Belmont, Mass. "The SARS CoV2 virus has proven to mutate much more...
The SP chief also dismissed the govt’s claims of mobile phone manufacturing in the state, saying only the assembly of devices was taking place with components imported from China, Taiwan and Korea ...