U.S. confirms nation’s first case of omicron Covid variant in California

U.S. well being officers have confirmed the nation’s first case of the brand new, closely mutated coronavirus variant known as omicron in California, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention stated Wednesday.

White Home chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci stated the person, who was absolutely vaccinated, had simply returned from touring in South Africa to the San Francisco space on Nov. 22 and examined constructive on Nov. 29.

“The person is self quarantining and all shut contacts have been contacted and all shut contacts, to date, have examined detrimental,” he introduced at a White Home press briefing offering extra particulars of the case. “We really feel good that this affected person not solely had delicate signs, however really the signs seem like bettering.”

The CDC stated genomic sequencing was carried out on the College of California, San Francisco confirmed at CDC because the omicron variant.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom cautioned residents towards panicking. “However we must always stay vigilant,” he stated over Twitter. “Which means get vaccinated. Get boosted. Put on a masks indoors.” Newsom has scheduled a press briefing at 3 p.m. ET on the variant.

Since South Africa first reported the variant to the World Well being Group every week in the past, it has been discovered within the Canada, U.Okay., Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Hong Kong, amongst different locations. World leaders are on excessive alert, fearful the virus is already extensively seeded throughout the globe.

The World Well being Group stated on Wednesday that omicron has been reported in not less than 23 international locations.

Fauci stated over the weekend that the variant would inevitably arrive within the U.S. On Sunday, two circumstances had been recognized in Ontario, Canada. The variant, initially referred to as B.1.1.529, was first detected in South Africa’s Gauteng province, the place Johannesburg is positioned.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel warned Monday that omicron has already unfold throughout the planet. He pointed to flights that arrived in Amsterdam from South Africa on Friday wherein 61 of 624 passengers examined constructive for Covid. A complete of 14 of them are contaminated with the omicron pressure, Dutch well being authorities stated.

Portuguese well being authorities stated Monday that 13 members and employees of knowledgeable soccer workforce in Lisbon had been contaminated with the variant after considered one of its gamers returned from a visit to South Africa.

“We additionally consider it’s already current in most international locations,” Bancel stated. “I consider most international locations which have direct flights from South Africa within the final seven to 10 days have already got circumstances of their nation that they is probably not conscious of.”

The U.S. imposed a journey ban beginning Monday for noncitizens who’ve traveled in South Africa and 7 different close by nations previously 14 days. The U.Okay. and the European Union have applied comparable journey restrictions.

President Joe Biden stated Monday he’s directing the Meals and Drug Administration and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention to make use of the “quickest course of obtainable with out chopping any corners” to approve potential vaccines that concentrate on omicron and get them available on the market.

The present Covid vaccines are believed to supply not less than some safety from the closely mutated omicron pressure, and booster pictures “strengthen that safety considerably,” Biden stated in a speech on the White Home.

Omicron was categorised as a “variant of concern” by the World Well being Group on Friday, that means it’s extra contagious, extra virulent or extra expert at evading public well being measures, vaccines and therapeutics. The variant incorporates greater than 30 mutations to the spike protein that enables the virus to enter the physique. The brand new pressure has roughly 50 mutations in whole, together with 10 alone to the receptor binding area, the a part of the virus that first is available in contact with cells.

Officers have warned that many of those mutations might result in elevated antibody resistance and transmissibility, which might restrict the effectiveness of Covid vaccines.

“The molecular profile of the sorts of mutations that you just see (in omicron) would recommend that it is likely to be extra transmissible and that it would elude a number of the safety of vaccines,” Fauci stated Wednesday. “However we do not know that now.”

He stated we have now to organize that immune safety from vaccines and restoration from Covid could also be diminished towards omicron, emphasizing the necessity for boosters.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Affiliation, described the signs linked to omicron as “extraordinarily delicate” thus far. Nevertheless, Bancel warned that the signs reported in South Africa is probably not predictor of the variant’s virulence since lower than 5% of the inhabitants is over 60 and there are far fewer comorbidities than within the U.S. and Europe, the place folks are typically older and sicker.

“I believe as we speak, it is actually not possible to know … I do not consider that what is going on to occur within the coming week or two in South Africa will likely be predicting to be full virulence of a virus,” Bancel stated.

Drugmakers have responded rapidly to the brand new variant. Pfizer and BioNTech stated they’re investigating omicron and will adapt their vaccine if wanted. Johnson & Johnson stated it was already testing its vaccine towards the variant. Moderna stated it’ll take a look at three booster candidates towards omicron, together with the next dosage of its unique Covid booster. The corporate additionally stated it’ll develop a booster dose particular to the variant.

— CNBC’s Robert Towey and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.