Omicron accused up to 70% of cases in parts of California

By Don Thompson | Associated Press

Sacramento — A highly contagious Omicron variant is a new coronavirus case in some of the most populous states heading for the holidays, as California is on a cliff recording confirmed 5 million cases of COVID-19. Obvious at 50% to 70%, health officials said Friday.

Federal officials said Monday’s latest national estimate that Omicron would soon become the most common form of coronavirus in the United States, accounting for 73% of all cases. The United States recorded the first confirmed Omicron infection only three weeks ago in a San Francisco resident who recently traveled to South Africa.

Currently, the California Public Health Service states that “increasing proportions of wastewater have been detected in multiple regions throughout California.”

At least three of the state’s health systems report that about 50% to 70% of coronavirus cases are consistent with Omicron.

He warned that complete genomic sequencing of virus samples was pending and would take several days, but said early California results were tracking national estimates.

“Overall, clinical and wastewater data show that Omicron cases are present in most parts of the state,” officials said.

On Friday, the state had so far 4,990,016 confirmed cases and killed more than 75,000 people. Case reports are expected to be delayed due to holidays.

Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that a serious incident has put a strain on hospitals and morgues, making California better suited to deal with the surge than it was a year ago, which has less impact than many other states. rice field.

For variants of the Omicron coronavirus, it remains unclear whether it causes more or less serious illness. However, UK public health agencies said Thursday that early data suggest that people with the Omicron variant are 50% to 70% less likely to require hospitalization than people with the Delta strain. Said.

Local authorities have also warned of the rapid spread of new variants.

According to the San Francisco Public Health Service, cases in San Francisco are increasing three times faster than during the summer Delta surge. Subspecies are generally unlikely to cause more serious illness than Delta, but authorities warn that “the infection rate is so high that San Francisco is likely to have higher hospitalization rates in the coming weeks.” did.

Los Angeles County, the country’s most populous county, reported more than 6,500 new cases on Wednesday. That number is twice the number of cases since Tuesday, with 9,988 new cases by Friday. Health officials were concerned that by the end of the year it could reach more than 20,000 cases a day.

The county’s director of public health, Barbara Ferrer, said twice as many cases from Tuesday to Wednesday represent “one of the steepest rises ever seen in the pandemic process.” ..

“These numbers clearly show that we are heading for a very difficult time during the holidays,” she said. “If the number of cases continues to grow rapidly over the course of this week and next week, we can find out how many cases we have never seen before.”

The Orange County reported more than 650 positive tests on Thursday for about 400 on a particular day last week. Dr. Regina Chincio Kwon, Deputy Health Officer of the county, attributed most of the increase to Omicron.

At least 16 cases occurred at a workplace holiday party attended by about 50 people in Davis, west of Sacramento, and at least 10 of them were identified as having omicrons, according to Yolo County officials. All 16 were fully vaccinated and 8 were boosted.

Public health officials have also tested positive for at least 28 vaccinated people after a holiday party in Marin County, northern San Francisco, and believe it is related to the Omicron variant. Said.