New Omicron Variant: What Minnesotans Should Know

MINNESOTA — The new omicron variant, which has been linked to a surge of cases in South Africa, is "most definitely" already in the United States, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Gottlieb spoke about the new variant on Sunday's episode of "Face the Nation" on CBS.
"It's almost definitely here already, just looking at the number of cases coming off planes this weekend," he said. "It's almost a certainty that there have been cases that have gotten into the United States."

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Cases of the new variant have been reported in Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, Britain, and other countries. The U.S. and dozens of other countries now have bans on travel from South Africa and seven other southern African countries. A state of emergency was issued for New York Friday in response to the variant's discovery.

The restrictions could buy the U.S. some time to boost vaccination rates and roll out other possible interventions, officials said.

The new omicron variant has not been confirmed in Minnesota, but that doesn't mean Minnesotans can't prepare — everyone ages 18 and older is urged to get their booster as soon as possible if it has been at least six months since they got their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna, or at least two months since they got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, public health officials said.

From just over 200 new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks, South Africa saw the number of new daily cases rocket to 2,465 on Thursday. Struggling to explain the sudden rise in cases, scientists studied virus samples from the outbreak and discovered the new variant, which appears to have a high number of mutations — a factor could allow it to spread faster, scientists with the University of Cambridge said.

Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick, described the variant as "the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen." He said it was concerning that although the variant was only being detected in low levels in parts of South Africa, "it looks like it's spreading rapidly."

So far, there is no indication the variant causes more-severe disease. South African experts said that, as with other variants, some infected people don't have any symptoms.

Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London, said it was impossible to make any predictions about whether the virus was more dangerous or infectious based on its genetic makeup alone.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed that federal health officials are better prepared to battle a surge of the omicron variant than it was a year ago when the delta variant arrived, noting that the CDC has launched a new surveillance system to specifically track the omicron variant.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.