US CDC: "73% of New Cases Are Omicron... It Has Become the New Dominant Variant"

COVID-19 testing site in the District of Columbia, Washington D.C., USA. [Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] The new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, has emerged as the dominant strain in the United States.

On the 20th (local time), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that 73% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. last week were infected with the Omicron variant.

The CDC stated, "The Omicron variant has now become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States."

This comes 19 days after the first confirmed case of Omicron infection was detected in the U.S. on the 1st of this month.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to CDC statistics, the proportion of the Omicron variant in the U.S. has increased about sixfold in just one week. It is also estimated that more than 650,000 people were infected with the Omicron variant in the U.S. last week.

Since June, the Delta variant had been spreading as the dominant strain in the U.S., accounting for 99.5% of new cases until the end of last month, but this month, the Omicron variant has overtaken it.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.