COVID Omicron Updates: 75% of NYC employers say omicron delayed return to work,

NEW YORK (WABC) — According to a survey by the Partnership for New York City, 75% of employers delayed their return to office plans due to the omicron surge.

38% of employers expect daily office attendance will exceed 50% before the end of March.

22% of companies are unable to provide an estimate of when they’ll exceed 50% attendance.

RELATED: What are the symptoms of the COVID omicron variant?

Here are more of today’s COVID-19 headlines:

NYC winter tourism
As the city tries to bounce back from a crippling financial blow due to the pandemic, it has now kicked off “New York City Winter Outing.” This year’s campaign includes special deals at restaurants, broadway shows, and for the first time, hotels. Officials hope it sends a strong signal that the city is open for business. The specials run through February 13.

Hawaii booster shots
If you plan on vacationing in Hawaii, make sure you get your booster shot. Hawaii’s governor is changing the definition of “fully vaccinated” to include booster shots. Visitors who haven’t had all three shots, the governor says, will have to quarantine for five days. The change won’t go into effect for at least two weeks, so travelers have will time to plan accordingly.

Daily cases, hospitalizations in New York continue to go down
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday that coronavirus cases across New York are continuing to decline across all regions of the state. That includes the 7-day average positive cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations

Omicron surge hasn’t peaked nationwide, US surgeon general says
Areas that were among the first to get hit hard by the Omicron variant are starting to see their Covid-19 numbers level off or even improve. But that’s not the case for much of the country, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said.

“There are parts of the country — New York, in particular, and other parts of the Northeast — where we are starting to see a plateau, and in some cases, an early decline in cases,” Murthy told CNN on Sunday.

“The challenge is that the entire country is not moving at the same pace,” he said. “The Omicron wave started later in other parts of the country, so we shouldn’t expect a national peak in the next coming days. The next few weeks will be tough.”
An average of more than 750,000 new Covid-19 infections were reported every day over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Queens man who recovered from COVID twice celebrates 105th birthday
Some birthdays deserve to be recognized as extra special. A man from Bayside, Queens, who recovered from not just one, but two bouts of COVID, is celebrating his 105th birthday.

Paul Barberio’s family threw the great-grandfather a party to mark the occasion. Barberio was healthy, happy, and surrounded by his loved ones.

Omicron won’t be last worrisome COVID variant, scientists say
Get ready to learn more Greek letters. Scientists warn that omicron’s whirlwind advance practically ensures it won’t be the last version of the coronavirus to worry the world.

Every infection provides a chance for the virus to mutate, and omicron has an edge over its predecessors: It spreads way faster despite emerging on a planet with a stronger patchwork of immunity from…