Hours before Utah’s first omicron case confirmed, doctor warned it could already be here
Omicron is in Utah.
Dr. Andrew Pavia, a University of Utah Health pediatric infectious diseases doctor, warned Friday that if the latest COVID-19 variant wasn’t already circulating in Utah, it would be only a matter of days before it arrived.
Hours later, he was proven right.
The Utah Department of Health Friday afternoon confirmed its first case of the variant. The individual who tested positive was described as an “older adult who lives within the Southwest Utah Public Health District” who recently came back to Utah from a trip to South Africa.
“The person is fully vaccinated, received monoclonal antibody treatment and is recovering at home after experiencing only mild symptoms,” the agency wrote in a statement. “The UDOH conducted a thorough case investigation, including identifying any close contacts of the case.”
No one knows for sure yet just how bad the new variant is going to be, said Pavia, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at University of Utah Health and director of epidemiology at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.
That includes for Utah children, who account for about 1 in 5 of the state’s COVID-19 cases, which continue to remain high due to the highly contagious delta variant here since spring, and could go up even more as a result of holiday gatherings over Thanksgiving.
“Kids are at pretty significant risk of disease from COVID in general, and we can’t pretend kids are completely safe,” Pavia said. “But whether omicron is going to be the same as delta, milder, or worse, it’s going to take us a little bit of time to figure out.”
That doesn’t mean Utahns should hold off on getting themselves or their children ages 5 and older vaccinated against the deadly virus, the doctor said, calling it a “real problem” that the estimated 1.4 million Utahns eligible to be vaccinated have not gotten the shots.
“I think delta alone should have been enough reason to get vaccinated. But perhaps concern about omicron should really get people’s attention,” Pavia said, citing new data suggesting the new variant is “very good” at reinfecting those who’ve had COVID-19.
Utahns shouldn’t rely on immunity from an earlier bout with the virus, he said. Getting both fully vaccinated — two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one of Johnson & Johnson — plus a booster shot provides stronger protection, Pavia said.
He said vaccines offer nearly 100% protection for teenagers, according to recent studies. The shots were only recently approved for children 5-11, but the vaccines proved more than 90% effective in clinical trials.
More information is needed, Pavia said, before the age limit for booster shots, now 18 years old, could be lowered. He said it’s possible the vaccines will be reformulated because of the omicron variant, but determining how well they work would take months.
Where else is omicron already in the U.S.?
As of Pavia’s midmorning virtual news conference, 10 cases of the omicron variant had been detected in the United States, in California, Colorado, Minnesota, Hawaii and New York, which reported five cases.
The new variant, first seen a week ago in South Africa, has sparked worldwide travel restrictions and other actions, including a new plan to confront COVID-19 announced Thursday by President Joe Biden calling for more vaccinations and testing.
What is known about the omicron variant is that it’s spreading rapidly.
“We don’t have all the answers on omicron. Anything that we say is based on very early and tentative data. People just need to be patient until we have better science,” Pavia said. “But we know that it’s spread pretty widely around the world.”
Public health officials around the country, including in Utah, are sequencing COVID-19 test results for the omicron variant. Pavia said he expects in the next few days to find out there’s a lot more of the omicron variant in the United States — including in Utah.
“I think it is highly likely that if it hasn’t reached Utah, it’s a matter of days,” the doctor said, noting that Utah has a better system than many states for identifying variants. “I think it’s in Utah. If it isn’t, it will be soon.”
Utah has ‘the tools to combat omicron’
Even as Utah braces for the omicron variant, Pavia said the risk of more variants emerging is “very high. This virus mutates and it has shown that it’s really flexible. It’s evolving. It’s evolving to become a better pathogen, to be better at infecting us and spreading.”
Still, he said there’s reason for optimism.
“We have the tools to combat omicron. It’s not the end of the world. But we’re not using them,” Pavia said, urging Utahns to get vaccinated, including a booster shot if they’re eligible, and take precautions against spreading the virus such as wearing a mask in public.
“You may be sick of masks, but they’re with us for a while and they really, really make a difference. So go out there and protect yourself,” he said. The doctor said he fears Utah, recently one of the nation’s coronavirus hot spots, may see a post-Thanksgiving spike.
That may already be happening, with the Utah Department of Health reporting 1,873 new COVID-19 cases and 19 additional deaths from the virus since Thursday, raising the rolling seven day average to 1,407 more cases daily.
“We’re not done with the delta surge,” Pavia said, adding, “Everyone is focused on omicron and the press is understandably very interested in it. But we’re still getting hammered by delta and we need to get it under control.”
Han Kim, a professor of public health at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, said the president’s new plan, which includes hundreds of new family vaccination clinics nationwide and insurance reimbursement for home testing, will help but could have come sooner.
“I think everything he’s doing should have been done months ago with delta. We still don’t know what omicron is going to do, but these programs will be effective in addressing the delta surge right now,” Kim said.
Making at-home testing for COVID-19 more accessible is especially important, the professor said.
“If everyone had cheap and easy access to at-home testing, it’ll go a long way to address surges without completely shutting down the economy.”
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