The United States identified its first known case of Omicron, discovered in a fully vaccinated patient who traveled to South Africa, as scientists continue to study the risks the new COVID variant could pose
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.
The Biden administration has asked fully vaccinated people to seek booster shots after their initial doses. Sixty percent of Americans areand about a fifth of those people took boosters, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . For days, U.S. health officials have said the new variant -first detected in southern Africa and announced on Nov. 25 - 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 he the president had been briefed by his team on the first known U.S. case.fell by more than 1%, extending to nearly 4% its loss in price terms over the past week. 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
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