The United States health officials said on Sunday that the Omicron variant of Covid19 has spread to about one-third of US states, but the Delta version remains the bigger problem, with the majority of Covid-19 cases belonging to the earlier variant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, told CNN that there is not a great deal of severity caused by Omicron, while also adding that it is early to draw conclusions and a lot more research on the variant is needed.
As per Reuters, at least 15 US states have reported Omicron cases so far: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. Most of the cases have been reported among fully vaccinated individuals.
However, it is still the Delta variant that continues to wreak havoc in the country. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told ABC News that Delta accounts for 99.9% of the 90,000 to 100,000 new cases of Covid cases daily in the US.
Whether the already available vaccines will give protection from Omicron, and reduce the burden on the hospitals, is still being studied. But so far, no deaths have been reported from the new variant.
