
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser, said that the patient diagnosed with the first reported case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the US traveled from South Africa to San Francisco, California, and is experiencing "mild symptoms."
"The individual was a traveler who returned from South Africa on November 22 and tested positive on November 29. The individual is self-quarantining and all close contacts have been contacted and all close contacts, thus far, have tested negative. The individual was fully vaccinated and experienced mild symptoms, which are improving at this point. So this is the first confirmed case of Covid-19 caused by the Omicron variant detected in the United States," Fauci said.
Fauci explained how the case was identified within US borders, saying that the California and San Francisco departments of public health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the recent case of Covid-19 in the individual in California was caused by the variant.
"Genomic sequencing was conducted at the University of California at San Francisco and the sequence was confirmed at the CDC as consistent with the Omicron variant," he said.
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