By Erika Edwards -
NBC News
While more and more states are reporting their first cases of the omicron variant, it is still the highly contagious delta variant that is causing nearly all new COVID-19 infections in the United States.
What's more, everything indicates that the cases increased after the Thanksgiving celebration.
Dr. Michael Saag, associate dean for global health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says he has seen a "dramatic increase" in coronavirus patients needing monoclonal antibody treatments in the past 24 hours.
[The risk of reinfection is 3 times higher with the omicron variant but existing vaccines protect against severe symptoms]
The large number of mutations of the omicron variant could allow it to spread faster than delta
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"Think about it," Saag said.
“Someone was exposed and infected on Thursday or Friday of last week.
Then (the virus) took two or three days to incubate. "
By all indications, the predominant variant in new COVID-19 cases across the United States remains delta rather than omicron.
"I know that the news focuses on the omicron variant, but
we must remember that 99.9% of the cases that exist right now in the country are of the delta variant
,
"
said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), during a press conference.
The line at a COVID-19 testing center in Times Square in New York.
Yuki Iwamura / AP
Most cases, he added, are among people who remain unvaccinated.
Walensky reported that the current seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases is about 86,400 daily cases.
A month ago, according to CDC data, the seven-day median was 70,000.
[The omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads up to three times faster than delta]
To be sure, the delta variant is behind that increase and how omicron may push cases going in the future remains a mystery.
Expert shares details of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and its differences with delta
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"We are going to take a long time to know what the global impact is going to be for people infected with omicron,"
said Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the Biden Administration, during the briefing on Friday.
Dr. Mary Bassett, health commissioner for the New York State Department of Health, said her team has stepped up genetic sequencing to detect and study the omicron variant.
"We urge the public not to panic,
as we are still learning more about this variant and are prepared to handle it," Bassett said during a news conference Thursday.
So far, at least five cases have been identified in New York.
The strain has also been detected in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska.
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Will omicron surpass delta as the predominant variant?
Nobody knows yet.
"What the virus wants is to infect more people,"
says Matthew Binnicker, an infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
He explained that viruses mutate because they want to live, spreading more easily from person to person.
[Biden's plan to deal with COVID-19 in winter does not include new restrictions]
"That is why we saw that delta prevailed and outperformed all other variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the world," added Binnicker.
"He became the king of the hill."
Mexico strengthens sanitary measures at airports due to the omicron variant
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Meanwhile, doctors are bracing for what they fear is another winter surge of COVID-19, attributed to more Christmas gatherings.
"Christmas and the new year are coming," Saag said. "Wash, rinse, repeat."