People wait in a long line to get tested for COVID-19 in Times Square, New York, on Monday (Dec. 20).
The United States has recorded the first death related to the Omicron Covid-19 variant, according to media reports. It is believed to be the first known 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 was unvaccinated. He was a resident of Texas state.
Reports said that the man had underlying health conditions. He was at higher risk of severe complications from Covid-19 as he was unvaccinated.
Omicron’s prevalence is even higher in some parts of the US. It’s responsible for an estimated 90% of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, federal officials said.
Scientists say Omicron spreads more easily than other coronavirus strains, including delta, though many details about it remain unknown, including whether it causes more or less severe illness. But even if it is milder, the new variant could still overwhelm health systems because of the sheer number of infections.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the US, accounting for 73% of new infections last week, federal health officials said Monday. Numbers showed nearly a six-fold increase in omicron’s share of infections in only one week.
Scientists in Africa first sounded the alarm about Omicron less than a month ago and on Nov. 26 the World Health Organization designated it as a “variant of concern.” The mutant has since shown up in about 90 countries.
READ MORE: Omicron sweeps across US, accounts for 73 per cent of new Covid-19 cases
