Our small local hill is closed due to Covid. In their case, however, they would run in the red midweek between NY and MLK, so I suspect the managers are not sad to shut down Tues-Friday this week.

But it's rippling through the industry. Many places are close to closing or only able to open on a limited basis.

Colorado ski resorts have only opened limited terrain due to employee shortages during COVID surge
First it was meager snow. Then the snow came, but so did omicron.
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/01/05/colorado-ski-area-staffing-omicron/

Killington Ski Resort working to contain coronavirus outbreak among staff
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/05/metro/killington-ski-resort-working-contain-coronavirus-outbreak-among-staff/

Europe's Ski Slopes Are Open Despite Omicron, at Least for Now
EU's Covid-19 certificate has people skiing like it's 2019; 'I don't love it, but it saved us'
https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-ski-slopes-are-open-despite-omicron-at-least-for-now-11639836003

Friend who works at a ski area confirms Covid is very prevalent and within her broader company they are getting reports that more areas are hanging by a thread.

Vaccine Cash Incentives Don't Work, U.S. Study Shows - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-25/paying-americans-to-get-a-vaccine-doesn-t-work-new-study-shows


Lotteries held to incentize people to get vaccinated didn't work - CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/15/health/covid-19-vaccine-lotteries-didnt-work/index.html


But wait!!!

First-dose vaccinations quadruple in Quebec ahead of restrictions at liquor and cannabis stores | CTV News
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/first-dose-vaccinations-quadruple-in-quebec-ahead-of-restrictions-at-liquor-and-cannabis-stores-1.5731327

Manitoba had a lottery to promote vaccines for a while and at the time I thought they should use the funds to make it easier for people to get the jab.

When my brother wanted to make his appointment for his first shot, online appointments weren't available for our area and it took him over an hour on the phone to make the booking.  I wonder how many people said to heck with it!

If the lottery $$$ had been spent on better website programming or a phone call-back system or more clinics in more places, I'll bet more people would have been vaxxed sooner.

One of the first rules of business ... or life, really ... is to make it easy for people to do the thing you want them to do.

>online

There is a problem with this reliance on online reg.  A lot of elderly people don't use the internet.  When you require reg. online for an appointment it's a big barrier.  Standing in line for long periods at a vaccination center is a huge barrier.  Waiting on hold on the telephone to register for 50 min. is a big barrier.

>> reliance on online reg

I agree that online reg doesn't work for everyone but it should be an option for those who can use it.

Every appointment made online shortens the phone queue ahead of you!

>> on hold on the telephone to register for 50 min

Yes, especially for those whose workday doesn't grant time for that.

I've got nothing against online reg, it's only when we rely on it too much and it becomes a bottleneck.

Unfortunately, we have fewer approved vaccines than I thought we would and the two main ones require special freezers which tends to consolidate where they can be administered.  It's hard to go grass roots when your vaccine requires special handling.

Florida added almost 400,000 new COVID-19 cases this week | WUSF Public Media
https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2022-01-08/florida-added-almost-400-000-new-covid-19-cases-this-week

test positivity rate, which topped 31% statewide

Hate tax more than vax.

KUOW - Quebec's 'unvaxxed tax' has people rushing to get vaccinated
https://www.kuow.org/stories/quebec-s-unvaxxed-tax-has-people-rushing-to-get-vaccinated

Florida breaks record with 430,297 COVID cases this week
https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2022/01/14/florida-adds-nearly-60k-new-covid-cases-3-deaths/

At the height of the lockdown in the first wave, our county had something like 8-10 active cases and 0-2 hospitalized. Current report is 58 active cases and 16 hospitalized. And keep in mind, with the new quarantine rules, "active cases" is cut almost in half.

The main hotel in the park has 12 of the kitchen staff out. Going into the MLK holiday, the concessioner is just hanging on. Ski areas too. Unless we are at the post-Christmas peak and things get better from hear, expect things to start closing. That is, if current rates go on for another couple weeks, businesses will simply start to close.

Already, my transmission repair is pushed back a couple weeks - too many mechanics in quarantine.

On that animated US covid cases graph posted here a few days ago, you can see peaks coming just after major holidays.

Yes, pre-holiday predictions were for a peak around Jan 15-20. I think the question is whether the faster incubation of omicron means we're already there or the higher virulence means we haven't seen the peak yet.

Should be soon, but the question is whether it will be before or after businesses shut down en masse. So far it's mostly reduced days/hours. But if case rates go up 20%, it's just going to be shutting the doors for a couple weeks.

Sewage sampling in Boston indicates that they have peaked.

Yes, I believe I posted that a couple days ago - down 40% since Jan 1.

That said, Boston peaked early. If you look at the other graphs for other cities, it looks a lot worse at places where omicron hit later. So Boston is almost certainly past peak. NY too. But the rest of us might just be getting there and here we tend to peak a bit after LA and SFO. So I think we'll need to wait and see what this week and next bring.

> Boston peaked early

Agreed. We're still in that 'rural lag' I posted.  It is raging here, too soon to tell if it is peaking but there are hints that it may be.