Health officials emphasize the importance of vaccination after the detection of Omicron variants in Alaska

Health officials are urging vaccination and booster immunization this week after the first case of a new Omicron COVID-19 mutant in Alaska was confirmed in Anchorage residents.

The individual traveled abroad in November and tested positive for COVID-19 at Anchorage.

State epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin has no history of vaccination in the state registry on Tuesday. That is, they may have been vaccinated or not vaccinated somewhere.

According to McLaughlin, health officials have no information about the person’s close contact, their symptoms, or whether Anchorage residents were hospitalized for failing five separate contact attempts.

According to McLaughlin, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials may have been exposed to Alaskan health officials by planes returning to the United States or elsewhere, including the country in which it traveled. Said there was.

This case has nothing to do with the outbreak of local COVID-19, but is under investigation. According to the Anchorage Health Department, the name of the country in which the person traveled is not disclosed for privacy reasons.

This is the only case of an Omicron variant ever detected in Alaska, but additional cases are expected and outbreaks are possible, McLaughlin said.

“We want the Alaskans to know that they appear to be more contagious or infectious than the Delta strains we know, based on the current information available about Omicron,” he said.

Potential Omicron can spread quickly, Early data show that it can cause less serious symptomsIt’s too early to say for sure, but McLaughlin said.

This is because cases of Omicron in places like South Africa often involve vaccinated or previously infected people and are disproportionate among young people who are not at risk of the same serious illness as the elderly. Because it is occurring.

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Dr. Tom Hennessy, an infectious disease epidemiologist and related professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, compared the appearance of the Omicron variant with a cloud of storms on the horizon.

“How it became the predominant virus in South Africa and spread rapidly to other parts of the world, but it’s not very common anywhere in the United States,” he said.

He said there would still be many unanswered questions about it until the variants circulate in places like the United States and researchers can see how it affects people. ..

“We are accustomed to getting a lot of information about COVID very quickly, but in this situation this variant will become more widespread and will be able to report these ongoing investigations together. Until we’re a little dark, “he said.

Highly transparent and constituent delta variants Most of the weekly Alaska incidentsHennessy said, it started as a trickle, before it soon became the dominant stock in a few weeks.

“If this is as contagious as or more contagious than Delta, I think we’ll see a rapid rise in some cases,” he said of the new variety.

National and international health authorities say that all actions protected from COVID-19 are generally against Omicron variants of the virus, such as masking, social distance, crowd avoidance, and testing if symptoms occur. It says it works.

Early studies have shown that Omicron may be better at avoiding immunity than Delta, but booster doses are for COVID-19 and the serious effects of illnesses such as hospitalization and death. Improve your defenses.

In short, vaccination is still important as other strains emerge. And he said Omicron should serve as an incentive to do so.

“Omicron is so contagious that it is very unlikely to occur over time for anyone who waits for this pandemic and thinks it may be possible to avoid the infection,” McLaughlin said. .. “The virus continues to spread and infects vulnerable people.”