The California Department of Health announced today that travelers from countries rated as of Concern by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be subjected to increased testing. So far, this includes Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The first known US infection was announced less than a week after the variant was identified in South Africa and just days after the World Health Organization classified it as a “variant of concern”.

According to the California and San Francisco health authorities, the patient returned from South Africa on November 22 with mild symptoms despite being fully vaccinated. The test results were sequenced at UC San Francisco and confirmed as an Omicron variant by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All of the patient’s close contacts tested negative. The person who did not require hospitalization is between 18 and 49 years old.

State officials have prepared for the discovery.

“We have to remain vigilant about this variant, but it is not a reason to panic,” said a statement from the State Health Office. “We know everyone is exhausted and the news of a new variant can be overwhelming. It is important that we collectively focus on the things that we know will prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. Individuals should be (1) vaccinated and boosted; (2) wear your mask indoors; (3) get tested if you have symptoms; and (4) stay home when you are sick. ”

Humboldt County’s Health Officer Ian Hoffman said another local COVID surge is likely with the holiday season in full swing and the announcement of the first U.S. Omicron variant cases confirmed in California this week is an unknown calculation brings into play.

How that will look is still unclear, he says, since “the jury is still pending” on the possible effects of Omicron.

At the end of the day, Hoffman said, the best tools to prevent cases – and the potential for hospitalization and death from the virus – and get out of the pandemic are the same as ever: masking, testing, restricting large gatherings and facing especially vaccinations and booster programs.

And, he said, the district has a head start, as a mandate for inner masks is already in force. There are no discussions about further restrictions or bans in response to the arrival of the variant, Hoffman noted.

Anyone who has traveled in the past two weeks should get tested, he said, and the information sent to the Humboldt County’s medical community over the past 24 hours includes advice on further screenings on where the People stopped and performed PCR tests on anyone who was outside of the county.

He said the public health service has requested that travelers’ tests be sent to the county’s lab to expedite sequencing to verify which variant was responsible for the positive result, but doesn’t believe Omicron is currently in that Region is in circulation.

Hoffman also reiterated that the vaccines and booster vaccinations are “very effective” and “very safe”.

“You will be the thing that will end this (pandemic) for all of us,” Hoffman said.

This article was originally published by CalMatters. the North Coast Journal contributed to this report.

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California will step up COVID-19 testing of some airport travelers after a passenger flying from South Africa to San Francisco International Airport is identified as the first known case of the Omicron variant in the United States.

The California Department of Health announced today that travelers from countries rated as of Concern by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be subjected to increased testing. So far, this includes Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Airlines are already required to provide the CDC with the contact information of anyone traveling from these countries.

The first known US infection was announced less than a week after the variant was identified in South Africa and just days after the World Health Organization classified it as a “variant of concern”.

According to the California and San Francisco health authorities, the San Francisco resident returned from South Africa on November 22nd and showed mild symptoms three days later.

The unidentified individual, who was fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine but not boosted within six months, was tested on November 28 and the results were positive the next day. The test was then sequenced within 24 hours at UC San Francisco and confirmed as an Omicron variant by the CDC.

“That was predicted. That was predictable, “said Governor Gavin Newsom of a Winton, Calif. School promoting vaccines for children and booster vaccines for adults. “We all have to be humble in the face of these mutations and variants and this disease.”

All of the patient’s close contacts tested negative. The person who did not require hospitalization is between 18 and 49 years old.

Health experts don’t yet know whether the new variant is more potent or more contagious.

State officials have prepared for the discovery.

“We have to remain vigilant about this variant, but it is not a cause for panic,” said a statement from the State Health Office. “We know everyone is exhausted and the news of a new variant can be overwhelming. It is important that we collectively focus on the things that we know will prevent the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. Individuals should be (1) vaccinated and boosted; (2) wear your mask indoors; (3) get tested if you have symptoms; and (4) stay home when you are sick. “

More than 92% of all adults in California got at least one COVID-19 vaccination, but uptake in children was much lower, with only 16.4% of 5-11 year olds and 69.9% of 12-18 -Year-olds at least one vaccination received a shot. Nearly 6 million eligible Californians have received a booster vaccination, Newsom said.

“That was with a traveler, that was with someone who was in South Africa. Everything matches, it’s not surprising that we have a case here in California. We assume we will have more cases over time. So it’s important to stay vigilant, ”said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

While the discovery of the new variant brings uncertainty, Newsom said that following the discovery of the first Omicron infection in California, there will be no new shutdowns or health orders as long as case numbers and hospital admissions remain low.

“With this new twist, there is more panic than information … doubling our activity is the most important thing we can communicate to avoid shutdowns,” he said. “I don’t see any signs at the moment that this is in our immediate future.”

San Francisco health officials, who already have some of the strictest masking requirements in the state, also said today they don’t anticipate any new health ordinances being issued.

The state as a whole has fewer than half the number of COVID-19 cases than it did at the same time last year, but the recovery has been uneven. Nearly a third of the 58 counties have higher hospital admissions than a year ago, mostly in areas where vaccination rates remain low in the Central Valley and rural northern counties.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Just a few months ago, California was the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in US hospitals in Los Angeles.

The death toll was staggering – so many that morgues were filled and refrigerator trucks pulled in to deal with the overflow.

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Now that cases are on the rise in other parts of the country, California has moved from worst to first point with the lowest infection rate in the US, although it has quickly moved to reopening more businesses with larger numbers of customers and hosting larger gatherings.

A fight for COVID-19 vaccinations has given way to an open invitation in many places. Where people queued for hours and the districts battled over cans, there now seems to be a barrage of gunfire in many places.

“Moving from our, if you will, viral tsunami that happened after the consecutive holiday season to our current location has been a success story for California,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley of the University of California, Los Angeles’ Public Health School.

At the height of California’s winter flood after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, the state recorded 40,000 new cases daily and well over 500 deaths per day. Those numbers have dropped to 2,300 new cases and 68 deaths per day.

The state outperformed Hawaii on Thursday with the lowest average number of cases per capita in the past two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. One in 2,416 people in California tested positive in the past week. At the other end of the spectrum, one in 223 people in Michigan has been diagnosed with the virus.

Kim-Farley said it was like turning a giant tanker over to reach today’s level of improvement. He attested to government and public health officials having clear guidelines that businesses, schools, and individuals largely followed, including mask mandates and social distancing.

Governor Gavin Newsom has allowed businesses and schools to reopen by counties as the case may be. At various points in the pandemic it has been heavily criticized for being too restrictive and now some fear it is moving too fast.

All counties have improved enough to get out of the strictest of four levels, and 38 of the 58 counties – which make up 87% of the state’s population – are now in the second-lowest restrictive level.

As of Thursday, all boroughs in the Bay Area will be in the Orange tier, with the exception of Solano, which will remain in the Red tier. An expected move from Marin County to the least restrictive yellow tier has been delayed due to an increase in cases.

Newsom said it plans to lift most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions by June 15.

The pandemic has increased unevenly in the United States

A year ago, there were few cases in California compared to New York, where hospitals were overwhelmed last spring. When California was on a second winter spike in mid-January, Michigan cases hit rock bottom in February before rising to the highest current infection rate in the United States

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Kim-Farley said California’s boom has scared more people into wearing masks, a rule that is still in place. He said he helped prevent a resurgence. “Some states in the United States that have lifted mask mandates are suffering the consequences of these increasing numbers of cases while we continue to see a decline,” he said.

California, like other states, struggled to adopt vaccines, restricting dosing to health workers and the elderly at higher risk of hospitalization or death. Doses have increased as cases tapered, and the high number of infections over the winter also resulted in some level of natural immunity.

Weeks ago, the districts had trouble getting cans. The state restricted eligibility for the precious vaccine, and there have been countless stories of scammers jumping the line to get a shot.

On the Vaccine Spotter website, where appointments can be booked, a card appeared on Thursday with a status in green dots showing the available appointments. Many were available the same day, and some websites allowed people to appear without an appointment.

Los Angeles County opened sightseeing locations in Palmdale and Lancaster. At Napa County’s largest mass vaccination clinic, demand plummeted from a flood to a trickle just days after California expanded immunization eligibility to anyone aged 16 and over last week. It also allows walk-ins.

“We definitely have the capacity, will, and volunteers and commitment from everyone doing this work in Napa County,” said county spokeswoman Janet Upton. “But now we seem to lack public interest.”

California has roughly 40 million residents, and just over half of the 32 million eligible for vaccines have received at least one shot.

A combination of vaccine hesitation based on reports of rare complications, plus misinformation and conspiracy theories and a feeling that the danger has subsided, has fueled complacency in some.

Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health, tried to convince more people to put aside concerns about the vaccine.

“The risk of a serious side effect from the COVID vaccine is around one in a million,” she said. “We take these tiny risks every day as we live our lives because we know what’s worth it on the other side. It is also worth returning to normal on the other side of the vaccination. “

With the introduction of the vaccine, funerals that had run out of space have returned to normal.

“It’s the difference between day and night,” said Todd Beckley, the general manager of Inglewood Cemetery Mortuary. “There was a time when we had nine deaths a day and they were all COVID. We haven’t had a COVID death in four days. “

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