Last week in the USA cases of Omicron accounted for less than 1% of all new patients.
More than 40 cases of the new COVID-19 Omicron strain were found in the United States, in most of which “the disease is mild.”
The director of the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, spoke about this on Wednesday, December 8, in an interview with The Associated Press.
A new variant of the coronavirus was confirmed in 43 people in 19 states of the country. Most of the patients are young people. More than three quarters of them are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and a third have already received additional vaccinations.
“We usually know that the more mutations a variant has, the more immunity you need,” Walenski said, recalling that in the United States recently all adult citizens were given access to booster vaccinations. “We want to strengthen everyone's immunity.”
According to her, the majority of patients with Omicron have a mild course of the disease, most often they register symptoms such as cough, nasal congestion and fatigue. It is known that one patient was hospitalized, but no deaths were recorded.
At the same time, the head of the CDC continued, scientists so far have only primary data on a new variant of coronavirus, while the course of the disease may become more serious in a few days and weeks.
It is indicated that last week in the United States cases Omicron accounted for less than 1% of all new patients, while the Delta variant accounted for more than 99% of infections.
The American regulator has not yet announced any predictions about how the new COVID-19 strain may affect the course of the pandemic in the United States.
Earlier, the chief infectious disease specialist of the United States, Anthony Fauci, said that according to preliminary data, the Omicron COVID strain is possibly less dangerous than Delta. He pointed out that in South Africa, where Omicron is gradually becoming the dominant strain, there is no significant increase in hospital admissions.
November 26 World Health Organization qualified a new strain of SARS coronavirus- CoV-2, dubbed Omicron, is of concern. This variant was first discovered on November 9 in southern Africa.
