Alaska has now identified a total of five cases of the omicron variant. State health experts expect that number to grow as the highly transmissible variant continues to spread across the country.
“We expect to get them shortly,” the department wrote. “These test kits will be made available at no cost to Anchorage residents at various sites across town.”
“The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after,” the CDC wrote. While health experts do know the omicron variant is spreading much more easily than delta, there is not yet consensus on whether it is more or less virulent, McLaughlin said. Twosuggested the omicron variant is less likely to send people to the hospital, but McLaughlin said there are some preliminary studies that don’t show a big difference in that regard between the two variants. It’s still unclear at this point.
The decline in new COVID-19 cases Alaska has been experiencing since the delta variant surge is very likely to end soon, according to McLaughlin. Currently, Alaska ranks 49th out of all 50 states for its, a metric the state once led at the height of the delta surge.
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