December 2 Omicron coronavirus variant news

Since vaccines have become widely available, the average risk of dying from Covid-19 is more than 50% higher in states that voted for President Trump in 2020 than it is in states that voted for President Biden, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

In the first 11 months of the pandemic – from the initial surge through the winter 2020 surge, before vaccines became widely available – the average Covid-19 death rate was about the same along party lines. Through the end of January 2021, states that voted for Trump in the 2020 election had an average of 128 Covid-19 deaths for every 100,000 people, while states that voted for Biden had an average of 127 Covid-19 deaths for every 100,000 people.

New Jersey and New York, two states hit hard early on, had the highest death rates during this time. Mississippi and Louisiana also ranked among the 10 worst-hit states.

In early February 2021, the number of people who received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine surpassed the total number of Covid-19 cases in the US.

In the 10 months since then, nearly 60% of the US population has become fully vaccinated and the average Covid-19 death rate in the US overall is 25% lower than it was in the 11 months before. 

The average death rate dropped even more in blue states. But in red states, where vaccination rates generally lag the national average, the average death rate hasn’t changed nearly as much. 

More context: Since Feb. 1, red states have had an average of 116 Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 people – 52% higher than the average of 77 deaths per 100,000 people in blue states. The five states with the worst per capita death rates in that time all voted for Trump in 2020: Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Four in 10 Republicans remain unvaccinated, compared to about one in 10 Democrats, according to data from a Kaiser Family Foundation survey published Wednesday. Fully vaccinated Republicans were also less likely than Democrats to have received a booster dose.

Following the identification of the Omicron coronavirus variant in a Minnesota man who recently traveled to New York City and went to an anime convention, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio encouraged attendees to get tested for Covid-19 as quickly as possible.

"We should assume there is community spread of the variant in our city," de Blasio said in a statement.

The Anime NYC convention took place at the Javits Center from Nov. 18-22. De Blasio said the conference required masks and vaccination.

The city is working with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Javits Center event organizers, he added.

President Biden is speaking now and giving an update on the coronavirus pandemic in the US. He is expected to detail new actions Thursday aimed at protecting Americans from the Delta and newly discovered Omicron variants.

Biden is expected to present the administration's nine-pronged plan in remarks at the National Institutes of Health, a day after officials confirmed the first recorded case of the Omicron variant in the United States, in California.

The Biden administration expects to see more cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. She also reiterated prior comments from public health officials, saying that recently-instated travel restrictions would not prevent the variant from entering the US, but give the country some lead time to prepare. 

Psaki stressed the need to be careful in how the government and the media "assess and attribute" potential community spread, and said that the White House will provide information about variant cases in the country "as it becomes available.”

“There’s a lot we don’t know about the variant yet,” Psaki underscored. “It could be less deadly. It could be more. We don’t know.” 

“The President … continues to believe that if we build on the bold steps that we’ve taken to date, if we continue to make the vaccines more accessible, to increase testing, increase masking, we can return to a version of normal in this country. That’s what everybody wants, and everybody would like to see,” she added.

Finland reported its first case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Thursday.

The person was traveling from Sweden, Finland's health institute said in a news release, adding that other people in the same group as this person have also tested positive for Covid-19, but have “not yet been confirmed as cases of the Omicron variant.”

The group has returned to Finland from Sweden, the institute said.

"Local authorities are tracing exposed persons and have taken preventive measures in the hospital districts of Varsinais-Suomi, Helsinki and Uusimaa and Pohjois-Savo," it added.

All 14 people who tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus on two flights from South Africa to the Netherlands last Friday had been vaccinated, a spokesperson for the local health board tells CNN.

“Everyone in whom the Omicron variant was found on Friday was vaccinated,” Willem van den Oetelaar, spokesperson for the Kennemerland health board, told CNN in a statement.

The Dutch government confirmed earlier this week that 14 of the 624 people who arrived in the Netherlands on Friday were found to be positive for the Omicron variant.

Around 90% of the total 61 people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 "have told us that they were vaccinated,” van den Oetelaar said.

The second case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the United States has been identified in Minnesota, according to a statement from state health officials.

The state's Public Health Laboratory found the variant in a specimen from a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to New York City.

The person with the Omicron variant is an adult male, is a resident of Hennepin County and had been vaccinated, according to officials.

Health officials expect to find more cases of the variant as genetic sequencing continues around the country. The United States’ first case was identified in California on Wednesday. Since the World Health Organization designated Omicron a variant of concern, health officials have made clear they expect to find cases in the United States. However, the Delta variant of the coronavirus remains the dominant variant globally and in the United States.

Minnesota epidemiologists said they will continue to investigate and collaborate with New York City researchers and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Having a robust virus surveillance system in place allowed MDH to quickly identify Omicron once it entered the state and made it more likely that Minnesota would be among the first states to find the variant," according to the statement.

Minnesota health officials continue to encourage residents to get vaccinated and get their booster shots, as well as practice social distancing, head-washing and mask-wearing.

Travel bans will not keep Omicron cases out of countries, but if they are put in place, they should be used well to buy time, Dr. Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, told CNN Thursday.

The duration of a travel ban should be used to ramp up surveillance, including looking at how and where people will be tested, and what will happen when there are positive cases, what the situation is in hospitals, how vaccination can be accelerated, and how to advise people and help them protect themselves, she added.

WHO has issued guidance against travel bans.

She also spoke about how much of a time lag there is in countries that are thought to have Omicron and the countries that actually do.

“Probably there are many more countries, we expect, that already do have cases of SARS-CoV-2, the Omicron variant,” she said. “It is simply a matter really of testing."

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The Omicron variant could be responsible for "over half" of all coronavirus infections in wider Europe within the next few months, according to the European Center for Disease and Control Prevention (ECDC).

A news release from the ECDC Thursday said that preliminary data based on mathematical modeling of Omicron "suggests a substantial advantage over the Delta variant.” 

Andrea Ammon, director of the ECDC, remarked that a "large number of factors" remain that "can change the dynamics of the situation,” adding the caveat that the evidence the ECDC has so far is limited.

In the face of this limited data, a "multi-layered approach" is required to delay the spread of Omicron, the ECDC said.

The rollout of vaccines to the unvaccinated and booster doses to people over 40 remains "imperative," Ammon said, adding that physical distancing measures, adequate ventilation in enclosed spaces and working from home if feeling ill are also examples of helpful measures. 

The ECDC advised that any temporary travel-related measures ought to "be carefully considered in light of the latest epidemiological situation" and "regularly reviewed as new evidence emerges.”