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原文標題：New York officials confirm 5 cases of omicron Covid variant
          across state
原文連結：https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/02/new-york-omicron-covid-variant.html
發布時間： DEC 2 20216:23 PM
原文內容：

New York state has confirmed five cases of the omicron Covid-19 variant
across the state, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced late Thursday, hours after
cases were detected in Minnesota and Colorado.

Cases were discovered in Suffolk County, two in Queens, one in Brooklyn and
one in New York City, she said at a press briefing. Minnesota health
authorities confirmed the second U.S. case of the omicron Covid variant
earlier Thursday, in a resident who recently returned from New York City.

Earlier in the day, New York Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said it was
a matter of time before an omicron case is confirmed somewhere in the state.
“We now have an exposure. We fully expect that it will be detected in coming
days,” she said.

New York City Health Commissioner David Chokshi said in a tweet that the
Minnesota case, which was found in a man who became sick after returning from
a conference at the Javits Center, wasn’t likely an isolated case, “meaning
that there is ongoing community spread of the Omicron variant in NYC.”

The first confirmed U.S. case of the heavily mutated strain was sequenced in
California earlier this week.

Health officials in the U.S. and around the world are concerned that omicron
is more transmissible and may evade the protection provided by currently
available vaccines to some degree. The variant has some 50 mutations, more
than 30 of which are on the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to
human cells.

“The molecular profile of the kinds of mutations that you see [in omicron]
would suggest that it might be more transmissible and that it might elude
some of the protection of vaccines,” White House chief medical advisor Dr.
Anthony Fauci told reporters on Wednesday. “But we don’t know that now.”

The Biden administration on Thursday laid out a plan to combat omicron and a
possible winter surge of the predominant delta variant of the virus. The
White house is requiring all in-bound international travelers to test for
Covid within 24 hours of their departure. The administration is extending
mask requirements on domestic flights and public transit through March 18. It
is also expanding access to free at-home Covid tests.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said omicron has been confirmed in
at least 23 countries worldwide. The variant was first identified in Botswana
last month and brought to the attention of the WHO by public health officials
in South Africa.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead, said on Wednesday that
hospitalizations are rising in South Africa, but more data is needed before
drawing conclusions about whether omicron causes more severe disease.

The patient in California who tested positive for omicron was fully
vaccinated, has mild symptoms and is improving, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on
Wednesday. The person, who is between 18 and 49 years old, had not received a
booster dose because they were not six months out from their original
vaccination course.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s Health and Human Services secretary, said the
fact that the patient has mild symptoms and is improving underscores the
importance of vaccines.

The CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna say it will take about two weeks to gather
enough data to determine what impact omicron’s mutations have on the
effectiveness of the current vaccines. They have said it would take until
early 2022 to develop a shot that specifically targets the variant. However,
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the company can roll out a higher dosage
booster shot much quicker.

心得/評論：

盤後才出來的新聞
omicron 攻入紐約
不過我想應該是已反應
是吧!?
其實我在想美國會不會被各國加入禁止入境名單???

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