Covid-19: the Omicron variant begins to spread locally in the United States and Australia

The first cases of local transmission of Omicron were reported Thursday and Friday in the United States and Australia, heightening concerns about this new variant of the coronavirus, already dominant in South Africa and which could become so in Europe. In the United States, five cases of the Omicron variant were confirmed Thursday in New York State, one in California, one in Minnesota and one in Hawaii, bringing the total of confirmed cases so far in the country to ten. . In Minnesota, the infected person had traveled to New York but had not been abroad. And in Hawaii, the patient was unvaccinated but had not traveled, showing that the variant has begun to spread between people within the United States. "This is a case of local transmission," the Hawaii Department of Health confirmed in a statement. Australia, for its part, announced on Friday that it had detected, in Sydney, the first case of the Omicron variant in a student who had not traveled abroad.

IN SHORT

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