People wait in a long line to be tested for COVID-19 in Times Square, New York on Monday (December 20).
According to media reports, the United States has recorded the first death related to the Omicron Covid-19 variant. This is believed to be the first ever recorded omicron death in the country, where 73 per cent of the new cases are of the new Covid strain. The victim was a man in his 50s who had not been vaccinated. He was from the state of Texas.
Reports said that the man had underlying health conditions. He was at higher risk of serious complications from COVID-19 because he had not been vaccinated.
The prevalence of Omicron is even higher in some parts of the US. It accounts for an estimated 90% of new infections in the New York region, Southeast, industrial Midwest and Pacific Northwest, federal officials said.
Scientists say that Omicron spreads more easily than other coronavirus strains, including Delta, although many details about it remain unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe disease. But even if it is minor, the new version can still affect health systems due to the sheer number of infections.
Federal health officials said Monday that Omicron has overtaken other types and is now the dominant variant of the coronavirus in the US, accounting for 73% of new infections last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The numbers showed a nearly six-fold increase in Omicron’s share of infections in just one week.
Scientists in Africa first sounded the alarm about Omicron less than a month ago, and on 26 November the World Health Organization designated it as “a form of anxiety.” The mutant has since been shown in about 90 countries.
Read more: Omicron’s wide spread across the US accounts for 73 percent of new COVID-19 cases
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