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Officials have confirm the first knownomicron variant(B.1.1.529 ) font in the United States .
The case was an individual who had returned to California from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested electropositive for COVID-19 on Nov. 29 , Dr. Anthony Fauci , the theater director of the National Institute of Allergy and infective disease said at aWhite House briefingon Wednesday ( Dec. 1 ) . None of the individual ’s close contact have tested incontrovertible , he said .
The individual was fully vaccinated and experienced mildCOVID-19 symptomsthat are improving , Fauci read . To his knowledge , the person had n’t received a booster shot .
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The University of California , San Francisco confirmed that the individual was infected with the omicron form , after scientists at the university analyzed the individual ’s trial run sample distribution . The CDC labs later on confirmed the determination .
" We sleep together that it was just a matter of time before the first vitrine of omicron would be detected in the United States , " Fauci said during the briefing .
Scientists in South Africa first describe omicron to the World Health Organization on Nov. 24 , and the WHO identify it as a " variant of business " on Nov. 26,Live Science previously reported . Since the variant ’s breakthrough , wads of other nation , including Canada and England , have confirmed cases of omicron .
scientist are n’t sure yet whether the omicron variant is more familial or more severe than other coronavirus variant ; and they do n’t yet bang how efficient current vaccine are at protecting against omicron . What is readable is that omicron has a lot ofmutationsto its spike protein , the branch the novelcoronavirususes to latch onto and infest human cells .
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In two to three weeks , scientists should have answers to some of these question , Fauci enounce during the briefing .
He observe that people should go on block out when indoors , congregate setting ; Fauci also stressed the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccinum if you have n’t already , and for those who have and it ’s been six months since your last dose of the Moderna or Pfizer - BioNTech vaccine , a booster dead reckoning is in order , he said . For those who receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine , a relay transmitter is commend two calendar month postdate that shooting .
Even though the vaccine is n’t aim specific variants such as the delta or omicron , when you get a in high spirits enough level of an immune response ( such as from a lifter ) , you get " spillover trade protection , " Fauci said .
" Even though we do n’t have a lot of data on it , there ’s every reason to consider that that kind of increase that you get with a boost would be helpful at least in preventing severe disease of a variant like omicron . "
to begin with published on Live Science .
