COVID-19 cases are dropping in California and across the country to levels not seen since before last summer's nasty delta variant took hold. Face mask requirements have lifted. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's risk maps have shifted from red and orange warning colors to reassuring yellow and green.
So why are many health experts feeling uneasy?
There are troubling signs on the horizon that this may be a short reprieve from the virus now in its third year of upending our lives. Cases are rising sharply across Europe and Asia, driven by a more transmissible sublineage of the super-contagious omicron variant that sent cases soaring over the winter. And that new sub-variant — which has been dubbed 'stealth omicron' — is steadily gaining ground in the U.S.
