5 More Californians Contract Omicron Linked To Travel

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Five more Californians tested positive for the Omicron variant this week after attending a wedding in Wisconsin, health officials said Friday.

The five Bay Area residents — who were mildly symptomatic on Friday — were among an outbreak of 12 people linked to the wedding, which took place on Nov. 27. One of the individuals attended the wedding after returning from international travel, according to a release from the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency.

Genomic sequencing was used to identify the five cases, but genomic testing was not available for the remaining patients who tested positive for COVID-19.

The 12 patients, all of whom were between the ages of 18 and 49, were all vaccinated and most received boosters. Four live in Alameda County, while one of the patients lives in Berkeley.

Those who came into close contacted were notified and urged to quarantine.

Public health departments in Alameda County and the city of Berkeley were investigating the cases in partnership with the California Department of Public Health.

"We don’t yet know how Omicron will impact a highly vaccinated region like the Bay Area," Neat Balram, a public information manager for Alameda County's health department wrote in a statement. "We remind residents that vaccination continues to provide the best protection against severe illness from COVID-19 that could result in hospitalization and death."

The news comes as hospitalizations in Los Angeles surged past 600 on Saturday, amid concern over another possible autumn and winter surge in infections and the presence of the new Omicron variant in Los Angeles County.

In response to the new variant, a rapid-testing site opened at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday to offer free — but voluntary — COVID tests for arriving international passengers.

"The federal government is highly recommending that people get tested," county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. "We will have our health workers out there as well, talking to people, making sure they understand the importance of testing. We are using a rapid antigen test there, so people will be able to get their results before they leave the airport."

Anyone who tests negative will be given a take-home test kit so they can test themselves again three to five days later.

Health officials are making a renewed call for people to get tested for COVID if they develop any symptoms, and also to do so if they traveled over the Thanksgiving holiday either overseas or to states with high rates of virus transmission.

"As we enter winter and face the Omicron variant, using what we have learned over the past two years will make a big difference for friends and families preparing to gather for the holidays and those most at-risk," Ferrer said in a statement Friday. "We are grateful to our partners for the encouraging trends, as at least 80 percent of people experiencing homelessness have received their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, and appreciate the continued efforts to improve coverage."

In San Diego, health officials have observed a sudden upturn in cases, which they believe was tied to Thanksgiving gatherings and not due to the new Omicron variant. The variant has not yet been detected in the county.

The number of COVID patients hospitalized in San Diego County increased to 303 Saturday from 296 Friday, according to the latest state figures. Of those patients, 85 were in intensive care, a decrease of one from Friday. San Diego County also reported 1,153 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, a relatively high daily number.

"Unfortunately, rises like these after holidays are not unexpected," said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, county deputy public health officer. "We are vigilant for any changes in cases that Omicron might cause, but we've seen similar spikes like this in the past."

The news of five more Californians testing positive for omicron comes just two days after California reported the nation's first known case of the variant. The infected person is fully vaccinated and 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.

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," San Francisco 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.

The number of states finding the variant is growing, with Massachusetts announcing its first case Saturday, a day after New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Maryland reported their first confirmed cases. Missouri reported its first presumed case Friday.

The variant also has been detected in New York, Nebraska, Minnesota, Hawaii, Colorado and Utah.

New York announced three more cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus Saturday, bringing the number of state cases linked to the new variant to eight.

"The omicron variant is here, and as anticipated we are seeing the beginning of community spread," state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a news release.

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 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 last weekend that 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."

City News Service, Bay City News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.