There is a sign outside of a hospital in New York City.
The omicron Covid-19 variant has been confirmed in five cases in the New York City metropolitan area.
She said at a press briefing that there were two cases in Queens, one in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan. The second US case of the omicron Covid variant was confirmed by the Minnesota health authorities.
New York City Health Commissioner David Chokshi said that the state is able to pick up trends over time because 15% of all Covid tests are being Sequenced.
He said that this is not just people who are traveling to Southern Africa or other parts of the world where omicron has already been identified.
Hochul reassured residents that the discovery of omicron cases in New York doesn't mean she will call for the same kind of widespread lockdowns at the beginning of the Pandemic that shuttered businesses and put millions of New Yorkers out of work.
People are informed, that's what we are in. She said there was no panic Thursday night. It is still a public health crisis, but it doesn't have to be a crisis that leads to the shutdown.
The first confirmed case of the strain in the U.S. was in a resident who had just returned from South Africa, which was the first to report the strain to the World Health Organization. A traveler who just returned from Africa confirmed the Colorado case.
The California, Minnesota and Colorado cases were all diagnosed in people who had mild cases. Hochul said the Suffolk County case is in a 67-year-old woman who had at least one vaccine shot and just returned from South Africa with mild symptoms. She said that she didn't have any details on the cases in Queens and Brooklyn, but would share them as soon as possible.
Health officials in the U.S. and around the world are concerned that omicron may be more transmissible than currently available vaccines. More than 30 of the 50 mutations in the variant are on the spikeProtein that the virus uses to attach to human cells.
The White House's chief medical advisor said on Wednesday that the kind of mutations seen in omicron might be more transmissible. We don't know that now.
The Biden administration laid out a plan to fight the omicron and the possible winter surge of the delta variant of the virus. The White house requires all international travelers to test for Covid within 24 hours of departure. The mask requirements for domestic flights and public transit will be extended through March 18. It is giving access to free Covid tests at home.
At least 23 countries worldwide have been confirmed as having omicron, according to the WHO. The variant was brought to the attention of the WHO by public health officials in South Africa.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead, said on Wednesday that more data is needed before drawing conclusions about whether omicron causes more severe disease.
The patient in California who tested positive for omicron was fully vaccineed and has mild symptoms. The person, who is between 18 and 49 years old, had not received a booster dose because they were not six months out from their original vaccine course.
The importance of vaccines was underscored by the fact that the patient has mild symptoms and is improving.
The CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna say it will take about two weeks to gather enough data to determine what impact omicron's mutations have on the effectiveness of the current vaccines. They said it would take until early 2022, to develop a shot that specifically targets the variant. Stephane Bancel said that the company could roll out a higher dose booster shot much quicker.
