Five cases of the Omicron coronaviruses variant have been detected in New York state.
Health officials are taking this extremely seriously from the public health perspective and are not "complacent" despite Hochul's statement that the cases were no cause for alarm.
The cases were all found in the New York City area. Officials said they were correct.
A 67-year-old woman in Suffolk County, Long Island, recently traveled to South Africa and has a vaccine history.
There are two cases in Queens.
There is one case in Brooklyn.
Someone who was in one of the five boroughs was a suspect traveler case.
It was not known if any of the people were vaccine free.
The mayor of New York City told the meeting that people should take precautions, like vaccinations and masks, because the variant is spreading in New York.
Scientists are concerned about Omicron's large number of mutations.
Omicron is more transmissible, escapes the immune protection from vaccines or previous infections, and causes symptoms that are different from other variant if you have more mutations. It is not clear if Omicron does any of these things.
The variant has been found in at least 28 countries.
In the US, Omicron has been found in California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Hawaii.
