Good evening. I’m Karen Kaplan, and it’s Tuesday, June 21. Here’s the latest on what’s happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond. Newsletter Get our free Coronavirus Today newsletter Sign up for the latest news, best stories and what they mean for you, plus answers to your questions. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. California has been averaging 13,768 new coronavirus cases per day over the last week. If health officials had reported a number like that back in the early months of the pandemic, we’d have been seriously freaking out. What makes me so sure? It’s at least four times higher than any statewide case count reported during the pandemic’s first spring, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, California didn’t see cases reach that level until late November 2020, when the devastating fall-and-winter surge was taking off. (We were definitely freaking out at that point.)Now that we’re two-plus years into the outbreak, that case count barely registers with the public as a cause for concern. Pretty much every public health leader from CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on down has lobbied hard for people to get their COVID-19 boosters, but only 47% of eligible Americans have done so. State and local health officials “strongly” recommend that people wear masks in indoor public settings, but most don’t. To some degree, this nonchalance is a sign of COVID-19 burnout. We’re tired of letting the coronavirus dictate what we can and cannot do. We just want our lives to go back to normal.AdvertisementAt the same time, there’s a reason that masks are “strongly recommended” but not required (at least, not yet): Although the Omicron variant is circulating widely and the current wave includes the third-highest peak of the pandemic, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is still quite manageable, and deaths aren’t rising out of control. Friends from Palisades Charter High School ride the MTA Expo Line in Los Angeles.(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) …
