Omicron surge cost Walmart & Amazon a fortune

Plus: State of the Union open to all members of Congress with a negative Covid test

The spread of the omicron variant throughout the United States caused an unprecedented number of illnesses. For retailers like Walmart and Amazon, the nation’s two largest employers, that also meant a lot of employees taking sick leave. Walmart said Thursday that in the fourth quarter of 2021, sick-leave costs for Covid amounted to over $400 million, well above the $100 million it had anticipated. Overall, the big box chain spent over $1 billion on sick leave costs last year. Even as Covid continues to abate, businesses will continue to feel its impacts as long Covid keeps people from being able to consistently work: a survey of employers in the United Kingdom, for example, found that a quarter of businesses cited long Covid as the main cause of long-term employee absences. 

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More Covid News

The number of new unemployment claims unexpectedly jumped for the first time in nearly a month on Thursday. 

Canadian regulators granted emergency authorization of Nuvaxovid, a Covid vaccine made using protein-based technology developed by Novavax.

A CDC study found that a massive New York City anime convention linked to one of the first U.S. omicron cases did not cause significant Covid infections thanks to the conventions policies requiring masks and vaccinations. 

A conservative political action committee is recruiting participants for Canadian-style truck convoys in the United States to protest public health measures to control the spread of Covid-19.

The Florida House passed a budget late Wednesday that takes $200 million in funding away from schools that imposed mask mandates last year despite a state-level ban on them.

What Else We Are Reading

• Why does the Omicron sub-variant spread faster than the original? (Nature)

• The Millions Of People Stuck In Pandemic Limbo (The Atlantic)

• Coronaviruses are ‘clever’: Evolutionary scenarios for the future of SARS-CoV-2 (Stat)