Millions of Americans remained out of work because they or a loved one were sick with coronavirus symptoms in late January and early February, even as the number of cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 fell.

Some 7.8 million people pointed to Covid-19 symptoms as the reason they were not at their jobs, according to the latest US Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey, conducted between January 26 and February 7.

While that’s down from a record 8.8 million a month earlier, when Omicron cases were surging, it’s still higher than at any other point since the survey began asking similar questions at the start of