Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies in the course of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee listening to titled Next Steps: The Road Ahead for the COVID-19 Response, in Dirksen Building on Thursday, November 4, 2021.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
At least 15 states have detected the omicron COVID-19 coronavirus variant and that quantity is predicted to rise, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky informed ABC News on Sunday.
“We know we now have a number of dozen instances and we’re following them intently. And we’re every single day listening to about an increasing number of possible instances in order that quantity is more likely to rise,” Walensky mentioned on “This Week.”
The variant, first found in South Africa, has a number of mutations to the spike protein that enables the virus to enter the physique, and a few of these mutations may result in elevated antibody resistance and transmissibility. Scientists are nonetheless amassing information on the virus and the effectiveness of present Covid-19 vaccines.
After being detected in a number of different nations, the U.S. reported its first omicron case on Dec. 1. While some sufferers had just lately traveled to southern Africa, others had no journey historical past. That means that group transmission is underway.
In an effort to stop the virus from seeding itself within the U.S., officers had at first restricted journey for non-U.S. residents from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the highest U.S. infectious illness official, mentioned Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he hopes that ban will be lifted in a “cheap time frame.”
Still, the overwhelming majority of instances within the U.S. are nonetheless attributable to the delta variant.
“We have about 90 to 100,000 instances a day proper now within the United States, and 99.9% of them are the delta variant,” Walensky mentioned.