The United States’ first confirmed case of the omicron COVID-19 variant has been detected in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The infected individual returned from travel in South Africa on November 22nd.
“The individual, who was fully vaccinated and had mild symptoms that are improving, is self-quarantining and has been since testing positive,” the CDC said in a statement. “All close contacts have been contacted and have tested negative.”
The case underscores “the importance of vaccination, boosters, and general prevention strategies needed to protect against COVID-19,” said the CDC. “Everyone 5 and older should get vaccinated boosters are recommended for everyone 18 years and older.”
Omicron was first detected in southern Africa last week and the World Health Organization quickly deemed it a “variant of concern.” It has since been detected in over 20 nations. Its many mutations – it has 50, compared with delta’s 9 – mean it could be more transmissible and evade protection offered by existing COVID-19 vaccines.
But public health officials warn that it’s too early to panic about omicron. Initial cases in South Africa were described as “extremely mild” by a doctor who treated them and Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said there are “indications” that people who received a coronavirus vaccine booster are “protected” against the variant.
The Wall Street Journal adds:
An Israeli probe into the case of a 45-year-old cardiologist who contracted Omicron showed he attended conferences in London and in Israel and came into contact with more than 100 people over several days after returning home.
But so far, there is only one known person to have contracted the Omicron variant from him: another physician, 70 years old, who was in the car with his colleague without a mask, said Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the infectious-disease epidemiology unit at Sheba Medical Center in central Israel, where both infected physicians work.
The cardiologist’s wife and three children tested negative for the virus, said Prof. Regev-Yochay.
In addition, the scientist who developed Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine said individuals already inoculated should be protected against severe disease caused by omicron.
“Our message is: Don’t freak out, the plan remains the same: Speed up the administration of a third booster shot,” Ugur Sahin, the co-founder of BioNTech SE told The Journal on Tuesday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialists, echoed that point at the White House on Wednesday, telling reporters, “Our experience with variants such as the Delta variant is that even though the vaccine isn’t specifically targeted to the Delta variant, when you get a high enough level of an immune response, you get spillover protection even against a variant that the vaccine wasn’t specifically directed at. And that’s the reason why we feel, even though we don’t have a lot of data on it, there’s every reason to believe that that kind of increase that you get with the boost would be helpful at least in preventing severe disease of a variant like Omicron.”
Fauci added, “There’s no doubt. This will end, I promise you that. This will end.”