In AB we have the UK variant. Getting about 10 a day. We have only 7 in total, in the whole province, of the South African variant. Given none others are reported here I'm assuming no other known variants are here or in any appreciable amount.
My own take all along is the pandemic fits the Gompertz curve.
Stanford's Nobel Laureate develops a prediction model for SARS-CoV-2 (news-medical.net)
This is significant, and understanding the nature of the Covid curve, its already apparent that Covid has run through most of the susceptible population it will infect, possibly regardless of variant.
So that the variants modeling and forecasts are not taking into account what the Gompertz curve tells us in terms of Covid spread. Its not Herd immunity we're looking for, its just the likelihood whether people continue to get infected in hospital, nursing homes, packed care homes or high density housing.
Based on countless studies analyzing degree of sickness being correlated with degree of viral load one would think most harmful contacts are not going to occur in 30 mins in a fast food place, or casual shopping and such.
Walmarts are actually pretty safe as other stores are. The only thing I wouldn't have open is Malls as far as retail. Big box outlets are the best because there is large indoor space in which viral material can diffuse. People get extremely ill, and appreciable viral load, when they spend ample time, or living, in small indoor places with poor air circulation or filtering.
The only outbreaks one tends to see in Walmarts is employees. People spending hours in the store, taking masks off, eating lunch in a lunch room etc. Customers thankfully are not contracting it provided they have a mask on, practice advised precautions.
