1st U.S. Omicron Case Detected In SF: 'A Matter Of Time'

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A San Francisco resident became the first in the U.S. to test positive for the omicron variant of the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday. City officials confirmed that they won't be updating any health orders just yet.

The Bay Area resident was fully vaccinated and had just returned from South Africa on Nov. 22, the San Francisco Department of Health said. They began experiencing symptoms shortly after their return, took a COVID-19 test on Nov. 28 and received their positive result on Nov. 29.

The resident, who has not been publicly identified, was reportedly experiencing mild symptoms, had had the full two doses of the Moderna vaccine and wasn't yet due for a booster shot.

"We knew that it was only a matter of time until the omicron variant was detected in our city, and the work that we have done to this point has prepared us to handle this variant," Mayor London Breed tweeted. "We continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated, get boosted, and take steps to keep each other safe.”

The test was brought to the University of California, San Francisco, where genomic sequencing was conducted and the CDC later confirmed it as the omicron variant.

"It's not surprising in any respect that California is announcing the first case," Newsom said, lauding UCSF as one of the leading genomic sequencing institutions in the world. "We are blessed to have their partnership and have their expertise."

The city worked overnight with the CDC and UCSF to confirm whether the case was indeed the Omicron variant, SFDPH Director Dr. Grant Colfax said during a briefing out side of city hall in San Francisco.

Colfax said the city has been preparing for the day omicron made landfall in the Bay Area.

"This is not a surprise," he said. "We knew that omicron was going to be here. We thought it was already here, but we just hadn't detected it yet. This is a cause for concern, but it's certainly not a cause to panic."

Colfax added, "There's still a lot we don't know about omicron. We don't know how infectious it is, although there is a strong likelihood that it is more infectious that the Delta (variant)."

he said because city's vaccine rate is high at 81 percent, and residents continue getting booster shots, among other factors, the city is equipped to handle COVID-19 variants.

"At this time, we do not anticipate changing any of our health orders or changing any current restrictions or imposing new restrictions on activities in San Francisco," he said. "We're obviously following these developments very closely. We'll share additional information as we have it."

The mild nature of the California case "is a testimony to the importance of the vaccinations," said California Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly on Wednesday.

All of the Bay Area individual’s close contacts have been reached and have tested negative, officials said. The patient, who agreed to remain in quarantine, was identified only as being between 18 and 49.

Dr. Charles Chiu with UCSF said of the case, "This particular sample, I heard about it yesterday at 3 p.m. and we were able to receive the sample in the laboratory by 8 p.m."

After running tests, Chiu said two hours later the sample was identified potentially being omicron. Then, using genomic sequencing technology, UCSF officials confirmed the sample to be the variant around 4 a.m. Wednesday, according to Chiu.

Newsom expressed confidence in the state's efforts to control the virus and said he does not anticipate it will impose another stay-at-home order or other shutdown measures.

Last week, President Joe Biden's administration swiftly curtailed travel to the U.S. from southern Africa, where the variant was first identified and was widespread. Clusters of cases were also identified in about two dozen nations, including Canada and several countries in Europe.

"The individual is self-quarantining, and all close contacts have been contacted, and all close contacts, thus far, have tested negative," the White House's chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Wednesday, according to media reports. "The individual was fully vaccinated and experienced mild symptoms, which are improving at this point. So this is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant detected in the United States."

Much mystery surrounds the newly identified variant, which was dubbed a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization on Friday.

"The panic has gotten ahead of the information, but clearly it is a variant that has generated an appropriate amount of international attention as the World Health Organization and others have highlighted it," Newsom said at a news conference in Merced on Wednesday.

The announcement of the first U.S. case came as Biden planned to outline his strategy on Thursday to combat the coronavirus over the winter.

"This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic," Biden said earlier this week.

The uncertainty that surrounds the variant loomed over progress in scaling back transmission.

"I know, America, you're really tired about hearing those things, but the virus is not tired of us," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said on Sunday, according to The New York Times. "And it's shape-shifting itself."

White House officials said Sunday it could take "two more weeks to have more definitive information on the transmissibility, severity and other characteristics of the variant."

On the same day, Fauci told ABC that the variant appeared to be more transmissible than other variants.

"It has the molecular characteristics that would strongly suggest that it would be more transmissible," Fauci said, adding that the variant has "a disturbingly large number of mutations."

Little is known about the variant so far, but Fauci told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that it could "evade some of the protection of monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma and perhaps even antibodies that are induced by vaccine."

But Fauci added that he didn't think there was any possibility the variant would completely evade protection from current vaccines.

Biden, Newsom and public health officials have ramped up efforts to get more Americans inoculated and to get those who have been vaccinated to get booster shots to maximize their protection against the virus.

Vaccine protection "may diminish it a bit, but that's the reason why you boost," Fauci said earlier this week.

Based on the possibility that mutations in omicron could evade an immune response and boost its ability to be transmitted among people, "the likelihood of potential further spread of omicron at the global level is high," WHO said.

"Depending on these characteristics, there could be future surges of COVID-19, which could have severe consequences, depending on a number of factors including where surges may take place," it added. "The overall global risk related to the new VOC Omicron is assessed as very high."

In response to the dire warning, California officials urged anyone at least 5 years old who has not been vaccinated to get vaccinated and those who had their last shot at least six months ago to get a booster shot.

"We are doubling down on our vaccination and booster efforts to ensure that all Californians have access to safe, effective, and free vaccines that can prevent serious illness and death," state public health Director Tomás Aragón said in a statement.

Bay City News and the Associated press contributed to this report.

READ MORE: Omicron Looms Over CA: 5 Things To Know

Omicron Unlikely To Trigger Lockdowns In Los Angeles County