The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reports the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been detected in an Anchorage resident. The case was identified on Monday through genomic sequencing performed at the Alaska State Public Health Laboratory from a person who recently tested positive in Anchorage following international travel in November.
State Epidemiologist, Dr. Joe McLaughlin said:
“This particular strain of the virus has at least 50 mutations that we haven’t seen compared to the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that emerged out of Wuhan almost two years ago now. This is the largest number of mutations that we’ve seen by a large margin. What this actually means in terms of from a clinical perspective is still unclear. One of the questions that’s come up is Omicron more transmissible than previous strains? We know that it’s at least, based on the current data, it appears as though that it’s at least as transmissible as delta and probably even more transmissible than the delta strain, but again, that’s qualified by a probably. We don’t know for sure yet, but it appears as though that’s going to be the case.”
Dr. McLaughlin also says:
“What about severity and illness? Is it, in general, does it cause milder illness or roughly equivalent illness to delta or slightly more severe illness? The answer is we don’t know, yet, for sure. I know that there’ve been a lot of reports in the press suggesting that it might be milder, but I think, at this point, it’s just too early to say.”
Alaska now joins at least 30 other states and more than 60 countries that have already detected the Omicron variant.