No cases of omicron variant identified in Philadelphia as health officials monitor situation

The Philadelphia Department of Health says they are keeping a close eye out for the COVID-19 omicron variant following reports that it has been detected in countries around the globe. 

No cases of the omicron variant have been identified in Philadelphia, health officials said in a statement released Monday. 

Philadelphia officials say they are working with the Centers for Disease Control to learn more about what to expect. Earlier in the day Monday, President Joe Biden called the new strain a "cause for concern, not a cause for panic." 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and Biden's leading COVID-19 adviser, said earlier Monday that there were as yet still no cases of the variant identified in the U.S. but that it was "inevitable" that it would make its way into the country eventually.

Fauci said scientists hope to know in the next week or two how well the existing COVID-19 vaccines protect against the new variant, and how dangerous it is compared to earlier strains.

Biden said he does not anticipate the need for any new virus-related restrictions, beyond last week's move to restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries in the region effective Monday

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Biden also emphasized the importance of vaccination to protect against all variants of the COVID-19 virus and the urgency of vaccinating the roughly 80 million Americans aged 5 and up who haven't received a shot.

On Friday, a World Health Organization panel named the latest variant "omicron" and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant — which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the United States.

Omicron’s actual risks are not fully understood yet. But early evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants, the WHO said. That means people who contracted COVID-19 and recovered could be subject to catching it again. It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.

Medical experts, including the WHO, warned against any overreaction before the variant was thoroughly studied. But a jittery world feared the worst after the tenacious virus triggered a pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people around the globe.

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