Hawaii has found a case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, officials said, becoming the fifth US state to detect the variant and bringing the total number of reported infections in the country to nine.
Omicron coronavirus variant was confirmed in an unvaccinated Hawaii resident with no recent travel history.
Hawaii Epidemiologist Dr Sarah Kemble said that the adult had been infected with Covid-19 a year ago, isn’t currently hospitalised and had “mild-to-moderate” symptoms including headache, body aches and cough.
Earlier, New York reported five such cases.
Three other US states have found cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant –– California, Colorado and Minnesota –– among patients who were fully vaccinated and developed mild symptoms, health officials said.
Omicron, designated is potentially more contagious than previous variants, although experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe COVID-19 compared with other strains.
At least 29 other countries have reported Omicron infections, according to the World Health Organization, a week after it was declared a variant of concern by the UN health agency.
