The Omicron variant is in Minnesota as a resident who recently returned from domestic travel has been found to have tested positive for the virus and had the strain confirmed by the Minnesota Department of Health.
The variant was confirmed by the MDH variant surveillance program, which is one of the strongest programs in the nation, according to their press release.
"Since the beginning of this pandemic, Minnesota's nation-leading genome sequencing infrastructure and strong testing network have allowed the state to quickly track the COVID-19 virus and better understand its spread. Today, those tools detected a case of the Omicron variant in Minnesota," Governor Tim Walz said in a press release.
The MDH announced the variant being detected on Thursday morning. In addition, the organization confirmed that the resident had recently traveled to New York City.
The patient is a male resident of Hennepin County and had been vaccinated against the variant. Since testing positive on Nov. 24, their symptoms have resolved. The person had attended the Anime NYC 2021 convention at the Javits Center from Nov. 19-21.
"This news is concerning, but it is not a surprise," Walz said. "We know that this virus is highly infectious and moves quickly throughout the world. Minnesotans know what to do to keep each other safe now — get the vaccine, get tested, wear a mask indoors, and get a booster. Together, we can fight this virus and help keep Minnesotans safe."
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Dr. Michael Osterholm spoke earlier this week about the new variant and said it was very likely already in the country.
"I said last weekend and into last week that it was just a matter of days before we would see cases confirmed here, and as for that matter that we would probably see the number of countries with cases well over 50 by next week, and we are surely on track for that. I think we are up to 24 countries right now," Osterholm said.
He also spoke about the variant, saying that there is still a lot that can be done to reduce its impact.
"It's not like there is nothing we can do. We can do a lot to reduce both the impact of Delta and Omicron if that becomes the next dominant variant," Osterholm said while pleading with the public to get vaccinated or boosted.
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The Omicron variant has been classified as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization. However, scientists are still working to determine just how dangerous it is.
"We're still looking very carefully at, 'do we have any evidence yet that the Omicron variant is, in fact, one that is going to see this immune escape happen with?'" Osterholm said.
The Minnesota Commissioner of Health, Jan Malcolm, also echoed this point, saying that a lot is still to be learned about the variant.
"We still have more to learn about Omicron, but the most important thing we can do right now is to use the tools we have available to make it as hard as possible for this virus to spread," Malcolm said. "In addition to vaccination and boosters, we can slow the spread of this variant and all COVID-19 variants by using the tried-and-true prevention methods of wearing masks, staying home when sick, and getting tested when appropriate."
Minnesota epidemiologists will continue investigating the case with New York City health officials and the CDC.
