Five cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in New York state, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday night. The announcement comes just hours after Minnesota health officials said they had identified their first case in a resident who had traveled to New York City in November for a convention that drew thousands of attendees.
Hawaii has also identified its first case of the Omicron variant, state health officials announced Thursday. The announcement brings the tally to at least nine total cases of the variant of concern spotted in the United States.
Officials in New York and Hawaii both say the variant is spreading in their states, leading to infections not linked to recent international trips.
“This is not just due to people who are traveling to Southern Africa or to other parts of the world where Omicron has already been identified. So that’s the most important sort of epidemiological takeaway that we want to convey,” Dr. Dave Chokshi, New York City’s top health official, told reporters on Thursday.
One of the New York’s five cases is in a 67-year-old woman with “mild symptoms” who had traveled to South Africa and has received at least one dose of vaccine, New York Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters on Thursday. She returned to the United States on November 25 and tested positive on November 30.
In Hawaii, local CBS affiliate KGMB reports that the case was in an unvaccinated resident with no history of travel.
The announcement of the six new cases came hours after Minnesota health officials said they had identified their first case in a resident who had traveled to New York City in November for a convention that drew thousands of attendees. Hochul said the state also identified four cases in the New York City area, one of which is suspected to be linked to travel abroad.
Officials said the new cases in New York were probably not linked to the Anime NYC 2021 convention attended by Minnesota’s first known Omicron case, saying local and state health officials were only now beginning the process of tracing the approximately 53,000 attendees who may have been exposed to the variant there.
Organizers of the convention said on Twitter they were cooperating with health authorities’ investigation.
“All attendees should receive an email or call from the NYC Test and Trace Corps or their local health departments with further information and recommended next steps. You are strongly advised to get tested,” they said.
The announcement comes just one day after California health authorities and the CDC announced the country’s first case of the variant in a traveler who had returned to San Francisco from South Africa. Authorities in Colorado announced Thursday they had spotted a case there, also in a traveler returning from Africa.
Cases of the Omicron variant have been reported in more than 27 countries, European health officials warned on Thursday. Not all cases in Europe have been linked to recent travel abroad, suggesting community spread there as well.
The majority of cases caused by Omicron have been mild, though health officials have warned that healthy, young, vaccinated travelers are at lower risk of severe disease than the general population.
Experts have also warned that Omicron’s significant number of mutations could erode the protection offered by antibodies, including those from surviving a previous infection. Preliminary results released as a preprint from South Africa, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, suggest a heightened risk of reinfection from the new variant of concern.
Hochul said New York state was not planning new shutdowns or rules to curb the variant, but was urging residents to get vaccinated, wear masks, and avoid large gatherings.
“The best thing that everyone can do is realize we’re not defenseless against this variant at all,” Hochul said.
