The omicron variant of the coronavirus is in Virginia. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi talks with Virginia State Health Commissioner Dr. M. Norman Oliver.
The Virginia Department of Health said in a press release issued on December 9th that the first case of the Omicron variant had been identified in an adult from 'the Northwest Region of Virginia who had no history of international travel, but did have a history of domestic travel, during the exposure period.'
Dr. M. Norman Oliver said that occurrences of the variant are still pretty isolated in the state.
M. NORMAN OLIVER: Currently, we don't have much Omicron in Virginia. There's only been a couple cases that have been identified. We don't know much about Omicron in the United States. Nationally there's only been about 3600 cases. What we do know about Omicron we've learned from watching Southern Africa and Europe, and what seems to be the case is that it's more transmissible, which means that it spreads more quickly from person to person. And if that's the case, we can expect to see more cases of Omicron going forward.
A briefing from the U.K. Health Security Agency says that the risk of transmitting the Omicron variant within a household appears to be three times more likely than with the Delta variant. Oliver advised getting the COVID vaccine if you haven't already, and if you have, getting your booster when eligible.
