The United States has identified its first known Covid case caused by the Omicron variant, discovered in a fully vaccinated patient who travelled to South Africa, as scientists continue to study the risks the new version could pose.
Public health officials said the infected person, who had mild and improving symptoms, returned to the US from South Africa on November 22nd and tested positive seven days later.
That patient was fully vaccinated but did not have a booster shot, according to Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, who briefed reporters at the White House.
The person is in self-quarantine and all the patient's close contacts have tested negative, he said.
Key questions remain about the new variant, which mutated in ways that health experts think could improve its ability to both spread and evade some defences provided by vaccines. Work is underway to update those vaccines, if necessary.
Omicron has been found in two dozen countries, including several in Europe plus Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Israel.
The United States has not yet detected community transmission of Omicron. Across much of the country, Covid transmission remains high but new cases have held fairly steady over the last two weeks, according to a Reuters tally. Three-quarters of all Covid samples in South Africa are now Omicron.
Not enough information
Dr Fauci said it could take two weeks or more to gain insight into how easily the variant spreads from person to person, how severe is the disease it causes and whether it can bypass the protections provided by vaccines currently available.
"We don't have enough information right now," said Dr Fauci, who serves as chief medical adviser to US president Joe Biden.
He said the variant's molecular profile "suggests that it might be more transmissible, and that it might elude some of the protection of vaccines, but we don't know that now... We have to be prepared that there's going to be a diminution in protection."
The Biden administration has asked fully vaccinated people to seek booster shots after their initial doses. Sixty percent of Americans are fully vaccinated and about a fifth of those people took boosters, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For days, US health officials have said the new variant – first detected in southern Africa and announced on November 25th – was likely already in the United States as dozens of other countries also detected its presence.
"This new variant is a cause for concern but not a cause for panic," Biden said on Wednesday before the Omicron case was announced. A spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said the president had been briefed by his team on the first known US case.
US stock indexes trimmed their modest gains for the day on the news. The S&P 500 is down about half a percent since the World Health Organization named the variant as one of concern on Friday.
The United States has barred nearly all foreigners who have been in one of eight southern African countries. On Tuesday, the CDC directed airlines to disclose names and other information of passengers who have been to those countries.
