7:20 am: 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 City but had not traveled overseas. And in Hawaii, the patient was unvaccinated but had not traveled, showing that the variant has started to be transmitted between people within the United States. Australia for its part announced on Friday that it had detected a first case of the Omicron variant in a student who had not traveled abroad in Sydney.