Public Health
According to Fauci, omicron’s Covid variant has already been found in 20 countries, but not yet in the United States
In this photo illustration, a hand is holding a medical syringe with words that say Omicron-Covid-19 variant in the background.
Rafael Henrique | LightRakete | Getty Images
White House senior medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that so far 226 cases of the highly mutated Omicron-Covid-19 variant have been detected in 20 countries, but U.S. officials have not yet confirmed a case in the states.
The variant, which appeared for the first time in South Africa about a week ago, has more than 30 mutations in the spike protein alone. This is the key part of the virus, allowing it to attach to human cells and infect the body, and it worries scientists that it will be far more contagious than the highly contagious Delta variant that has been increasing worldwide in recent months has led to an increase in cases.
“This mutation profile is very different from other interesting and worrying variants, and although some mutations are also found in the delta, this is not a delta,” Fauci told reporters at a briefing by the White House Covid-19 Task Force. “These mutations have been linked to increased transmissibility and immune evasion.”
There are several other mutations in the virus that scientists haven’t seen before and don’t know how they will change the way the virus behaves or how it spreads, he said.
U.S. officials have stepped up genome sequencing for Covid cases in recent months, sequencing about 80,000 samples a week, up from about 8,000 a week earlier this year, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She said the Delta variant remains the predominant strain in the US, accounting for about 99.9% of all cases sequenced across the country.
“To be very clear, we have a lot more tools to combat the variant today than we had at that time last year,” said Walensky at the briefing.
Fauci said it was too early to say if Omicron will be more deadly than the Delta variant. Reports of milder symptoms in South Africa have included younger and healthier patients who would normally have milder Covid and were based on a small number of cases, he noted.
“It is very difficult to know whether this particular variant will lead to serious illness or not,” he said. “Although some preliminary information from South Africa suggests that there are no unusual symptoms associated with a variant, we don’t know and it is too early to say.”