Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday lowered the county’s COVID threat level to yellow, signaling a controlled level of cases following the decline of the omicron wave.
The yellow level means COVID poses a “moderate threat” to the public and urges residents to continue to stay vigilant unless fully vaccinated.
Under the yellow or moderate level, unvaccinated residents are encouraged to continue masking and social distancing, while vaccinated residents are encouraged to do the same where required by law.
“My hope is that we are at a permanent turning point of this pandemic,” Hidalgo said in a statement. “But we’ve yet to have a wave where our hospitals don’t get overwhelmed, so we need to tread with caution before we declare victory over this virus.”
As noted, we dropped to the orange level two weeks ago. We were last in yellow in November, for less than a month before omicron moved in. I’m still wearing a mask for the grocery store and other indoor places with lots of people – I mean, I haven’t had a cold in over two years now, so why wouldn’t I? You do you, as long as that means getting vaxxed and/or boosted if you haven’t yet.
Side benefit of all the masking and social distancing is not getting sick with the flu, common code, etc. Even my usual allergies were not as severe. Covid is real and it kills people.