The DC Department of Health announced Sunday it has detected four cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 that are not related to each other in the District. Georgetown University says one of them is a member.
The unnamed individuals infected with the new variant include three adult females, two of which traveled in the DMV area (to Maryland and Virginia) during the Thanksgiving holiday. The third woman traveled to Florida and New York.
The other case is an adult male, who doesn’t have a known travel history.
All four people had been fully vaccinated, while one of them had not yet received her booster shot that she was eligible for. The booster vaccine status of the three other cases is unknown.
DC Health Contact Trace Force has reached out to all close contacts and provided them guidance.
In the meantime, Georgetown University said in a release that one of the four Omicron cases was a member of the school’s community. The person has not been on campus since before Thanksgiving other than to get tested for COVID-19.
“The individual is fully vaccinated, asymptomatic and had recently returned from domestic travel. Testing was conducted by Georgetown University’s COVID-19 testing lab, and the genomic sequencing confirming the Omicron variant was conducted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Vaccine Research Center. We are coordinating closely with DC Health on this case and will do the same for any future cases,” Georgetown said.
“While Omicron is classified by the World Health Organization as a Variant of Concern, scientists are still working to determine how it compares with the predominant Delta variant in terms of transmissibility and disease severity,” DC Mayor Muriel Bowser‘s Office said in a statement.
According to DC officials, the new reports of the Omicron variant in the city have underscored the significance of vaccination, boosters, as well as prevention methods against COVID-19 such as wearing masks, regular hand washing, and social distancing.