CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The omicron variant has yet to be identified in the U.S., but the city of Chicago is actively looking for it.
Local labs are doubling their efforts to detect the new variant of COVID-19.
“I expect it, likely, to be picked up relatively soon,” said Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.
Hospitals are being asked to send in twice as many random samples of COVID-19 which will then be sequenced and uploaded to a global database.
“We actually have the capacity now to detect a new variant, say the omicron variant, all the way down to .01%,” added Arwady. “Meaning if 1 in 10,000 infections is this omicron variant, it will get picked up.”
The Chicago Department of Public Health said it can also detect a new variant in wastewater and is planning to sample the Cook County Jail, O’Hare International Airport and neighborhood manholes.
“This doesn’t tell you who has COVID or the variant, but it tells you that it’s there,” Arwady said.
So far the omicron variant has been reported in at least 15 countries.
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