As Vermont continues to battle rising cases and hospitalizations associated with a surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19, a new variant — Omicron — is flooding headlines around the world.
Much remains unknown about Omicron, but its potential risks are significant enough that world health leaders have dubbed it a “variant of concern.”
Here’s what we know so far about Omicron, and how Vermont is responding.
What is Omicron?
First, the basics.
Omicron is a new mutation of Covid-19 and was labeled a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization about a week ago. Scientists in South Africa were the first to identify the variant, and raised the alarm on Nov. 24. A Dutch public health agency later learned that Omicron was already present in the Netherlands even earlier than that.
Omicron was first reported in the U.S. in California on Dec. 1, although scientists say that means it was likely circulating here days or weeks earlier.
Omicron has not been detected in Vermont, according to Ben Truman, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Health.
“There is a lot that is still unknown about this new variant, but it appears to be more infectious, already showing up in various countries, including Canada,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said in a Nov. 29 statement.
Over the next few weeks, Truman wrote, we should know more about the severity of illness from Omicron, and how the variant responds to vaccines.
Vaccines will probably still protect against severe illness from Omicron, a World Health Organization scientist said at a recent press briefing.
What is Vermont doing to prepare?
“At this time, our guidance has not changed,” Truman, the health department spokesperson, said in an email to VTDigger Thursday.
In addition to masking, he suggested people “give serious thought to forgoing holiday parties, get tested 5-7 days after any gatherings or possible exposures, and stay home if you are sick.”
Truman also said that, because it takes two weeks for booster shots to be fully effective, “now is the time to act.”
Anne Sosin, policy fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, said the first priority right now needs to be getting the Delta variant under control.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about Omicron, but we do know that Delta is already a problem in Vermont,” Sosin said. “And all of the policy tools that we need to be deploying to control Delta will also be critical for responding to Omicron, if it truly represents a threat.”
Sosin has advocated for a statewide indoor mask mandate, and describes it as a way to “buy us more time” to work on other solutions — getting more kids vaccinated, increasing booster accessibility and researching better treatments — while also keeping the economy open.
Gov. Phil Scott has rejected legislators’ calls for a universal mask mandate. On Thursday, he reaffirmed his position against instituting another state of emergency, a condition he says would be required before he could impose a mask mandate.
“A state of emergency is not needed at this point because we already have the tools we need: vaccinations, boosters, testing, and the ability to take commonsense precautions like wearing masks indoors, staying home when sick and being smart about gatherings,” said Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for Gov. Scott, in an email.
The “basic transmission dynamics remain unchanged” between Omicron and previous variants, Sosin said, so the same public health measures still apply.
“Variants amplify the policy choices we make,” Sosin said. “If you have a more transmissible variant, it’s going to amplify the impacts of those choices.”
What about detecting Omicron?
Burlington, which has been testing wastewater for Covid since August 2020, will begin screening sewage for the Omicron variant in the next couple weeks, said Meagan Tuttle, principal planner for the city.
Wastewater testing is helpful because it is able to screen the entire population at once, said Nancy Stetson, a senior policy and data analyst for the city. Since August 2020, Burlington has tested for the presence of the virus on a weekly basis, and it adds additional tests to identify variants when new ones emerge. The wastewater testing program first identified the alpha variant in Vermont last winter, before public health labs sequenced it from an individual test, Stetson said.
Truman said the state health department has an active sequencing program to identify variants, but he did not provide information on what percentage of Covid tests get sequenced.
How are our neighbors responding?
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a state of emergency on Nov. 26. The executive order directs hospitals above a capacity threshold to postpone elective procedures.
New Hampshire public health officials, like in Vermont, continue to urge residents to take precautions such as masking.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told a Boston TV news station he would not be bringing back earlier pandemic restrictions, though he also urged people to get a booster.
What about travel?
Omicron had been identified in more than two dozen countries across six continents as of Thursday afternoon.
There have been at least two cases of Omicron identified in the United States: the first was in California on Dec. 1, and the second confirmed case was a Minnesota resident who had recently traveled to New York City.
Canada has reported several Omicron cases, including at least one in Quebec.
The U.S. and Canada have both issued travel bans against several countries in Africa, even though the virus is believed to already be circulating widely around the globe. Researchers have told the journal Nature that border restrictions are likely ineffective and may discourage countries from alerting the world to new variants in the future.
