Ómicron: they detect the first case of the variant of the coronavirus in Florida

Hospital sources in the city of Tampa, on the west coast of Florida (EE.UU.), confirmed this Tuesday the detection of the first case of contagion by the omicron variant of coronavirus in this state, a variant that is already present in 18 other US states.

This is a person who tested positive for COVID-19 after recently returning from an international trip, said Kimberly Antos, a spokeswoman for James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa.

“We can confirm the detection of a case of the omicron variant” of covid-19 in a patient who suffered “mild symptoms,” said Haley, according to Channel 10 Tampa Bay.

In addition to Florida, with a first confirmed case of the omicron variant, the rest of the states where this infection has been detected are New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, California, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Mississippi, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Nebraska, Georgia, and Hawaii.

“Despite the increased attention attracted by the omicron variant, the delta variant continues to be the main variant circulating in the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its website.

Despite being more contagious, the omicron variant of covid-19 appears not to cause as serious a disease as feared, but its global expansion has already affected the economy and fears of new restrictive measures are affecting the market.

This variant, which has spread to about 40 countries, was detected for the first time in the US on December 1 and, since then, the health authorities of each state have been counting their own cases of omicron, adds the agency .

The United States has registered 49,002,475 confirmed coronavirus infections and 785,655 deaths from covid-19 until Monday, with a vaccination rate of 75.6% with at least one dose.

From the week of November 26 to December 2, Florida registered 10,892 new cases of covid-19, a figure that has remained stable in the last six weeks, already well below the more than 21,000 new daily cases that were reported this summer. .

Although the total for that week in Florida is higher than the previous one (9,645 cases), it is practically like that of the previous two weeks (10,890 and 10,711), according to the weekly report that the State Department of Health reports on Fridays. .

No cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus had been detected so far in Florida, but state health authorities were preparing to deal with its potential emergence.

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