Contra Costa County public health officials have detected the county’s first three cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant, as the strain is now overwhelmingly dominant across the U.S.
Contra Costa Health Services announced on Monday three county residents, two of whom were fully vaccinated and none of whom had received their booster shot, tested positive for the strain. Dr. Chris Farnitano, the county health officer, said omicron’s emergence was an inevitability.
"We knew it was just a matter of time before the omicron variant appeared in Contra Costa County," he said in a release, adding that county health officials will continue encouraging all eligible county residents to receive a booster dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the omicron variant accounted for 73% of the country’s new cases last week, just 26 days after the strain was first reported and 19 days after UCSF detected the country’s first case.
The omicron variant has now been detected in Alameda, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties, while samples have been discovered in San Mateo County wastewater samples.
More than a third of Contra Costa County residents (33.9%) who are at least 16 years old had received a booster or additional dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, according to county data. Faranitano, alongside his counterparts around the Bay Area, warned the region’s residents on Friday that boosting vaccinated people is the best bet to prevent the omicron variant from bringing Bay Area hospitals to their knees.
"If a surge causes many thousands of new cases per day, even a small percentage of that total entering our hospitals will overwhelm healthcare delivery systems," officials warned.
Related
