Health officials have confirmed five cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced late Thursday.
Hochul, who joined New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for an evening briefing, said the cases involve a 67-year-old Suffolk County woman "with some vaccination history," who recently traveled from South Africa.
The woman, who reported mild symptoms, had initially tested negative upon returning to the U.S. on Nov. 25, but later tested positive on Nov. 30.Two of the other confirmed cases are in Queens, one in Brooklyn and another "suspected traveler case" in “one of the five boroughs," officials said. The vaccination status of those individuals and other details, such as where the exposure may have occurred, were “unknown” at the time of the announcement.
But de Blasio said all New Yorkers should assume the variant is spreading at the community level. He and Hochul urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated, to get their boosters, if eligible, to wear masks and to take other precautions.
The governor said the cases are “no cause for alarm.” She added that health officials “are taking this extremely seriously from the public health perspective” and are “not complacent.”
“This is not March, 2020,” she told reporters, referring to the devastating first few weeks of the pandemic. “People should not panic that this is going to be a repeat of what happened before.”
The announcement came just hours after Hochul told reporters that city and state health officials were monitoring Covid-19 test results for the Omicron variant after the country’s second confirmed case was tied to a November convention at the Javits Center.