Five cases of the heavily mutated omicron coronavirus strain were identified in New York State on Thursday, including four in New York City, as the region emerged as an early U.S. hot spot for the concerning variant.
Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Hochul announced the ominous development together in a hastily called news conference on Thursday evening. Hochul, who urged calm in the face of the mysterious variant, said one case had been identified in Suffolk County on Long Island, two had been spotted in Queens and one had turned up in Brooklyn.
The governor also described an additional New York City case, but did not pinpoint its specific location within the five boroughs. The Long Island case involved a vaccinated 67-year-old woman who had recently returned from South Africa, Hochul said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the other four were immunized.
“This is an urgent moment,” de Blasio said.
The variant, which has some 50 mutations, appears to spread swiftly and may dodge protection provided by vaccines. But little is known about its virulence.
“We want people to know that the early cases that have arose are not life-threatening,” Hochul said. “They seem to be minor cases. And that is a source of good news for us right now.”
The new cases signaled that community spread has begun in New York City, de Blasio warned. “We have to assume that means we’re going to see a lot more cases,” the mayor said.
The announcement arrived just hours after authorities identified an omicron case in a Minnesota man who visited a packed Manhattan convention last month.
The Minneapolis-area man, who was identified as a vaccinated adult resident of Hennepin County, felt mild symptoms after he returned home from the Anime NYC 2021 convention at the Javits Center. His symptoms have since resolved, according to officials.
The convention ran from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21
Tens of thousands of anime fans attended the event at the sprawling glass convention center. Visitors at the Javits Center were required to show proof of vaccination and to wear masks inside, according to the venue.
Even after the announcement of the five cases, de Blasio stopped short of escalating the city’s masking requirements to an outright mandate. On Monday, top city health officials issued a strengthened recommendation that New Yorkers strap on masks inside, but did not require face coverings.
De Blasio and Hochul have leaned into promoting vaccines and boosters in response to omicron, but have shied away from thrusting mask requirements back into New Yorkers’ lives.
“Anyone out there who’s feeling urgency in this moment, there’s something you can do,” the mayor said. “If you haven’t gotten the booster, go get it. If your child’s not vaccinated, get them vaccinated.”
City Councilman Mark Levine, chair of the council’s health committee, said the mayor was moving too slow.
“Mandating masking in places like grocery stores, which has been done in many other places in America, does not detract from vaccination,” Levine said Thursday before the revelation of the five cases. “Period. Those two are not connected.”
A South African study found omicron was three times more likely to reinfect people than other coronavirus variants, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Omicron has now been reported in at least two dozen countries, including Ghana, where Mayor-elect Eric Adams flew this week for a pre-inauguration trip. Adams has been in touch with state and local officials about the omicron case, his spokesman said.
“Eric believes addressing this new variant and its potential spread to New York must be a top priority for government and deserves the attention of all New Yorkers,” Evan Thies, the spokesman, said in a statement. “He continues to urge New Yorkers to get vaccinated and receive their booster shots.”
Omicron was first detected in the southern African nation of Botswana. But it has appeared in various corners of the globe since it was disclosed by scientists in South Africa last week.
South Africa reported 11,535 new COVID cases on Thursday as the virus spreads like wildfire in the country. Cases roughly doubled there between Tuesday and Wednesday.
President Biden said Thursday that all global travelers visiting the U.S. must test themselves within one day of departure for America. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has prepared well for omicron and any future coronavirus variants.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said U.S. health officials have significantly expanded their capacity to conduct genomic sequencing tests that pinpoint new variants, an area in which the U.S. had lagged other nations.
“CDC has been actively monitoring and preparing for this variant,” Walensky said in a statement. “We have been working closely with Minnesota’s Department of Health and will continue to work diligently with other U.S. and global public health and industry partners as we learn more.”
Hochul, who said she did not foresee immediate shutdowns or closures, declared in the evening that there is “no cause for alarm” despite the news and already rising coronavirus rates across the state. And she said it’s too early to say if omicron will supplant the delta variant as the dominant strain menacing New York.
“We suspect that there will be more cases emerging,” she said. “The best thing that everyone can do is realize we’re not defenseless against this variant at all. That vaccine, we know, is going to ensure that there are less severe symptoms.”
