Omicron variant of COVID-19 confirmed in Texas

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been confirmed in Texas.

The Houston Health Department announced yesterday that the Omicron variant has been detected in eight of the city’s wastewater treatment facilities at the end of last month and, according to the Houston Chronicle, a Harris County woman in the first to be diagnosed to be infected with it. The woman reportedly was vaccinated and has not recently traveled.

The city has been routinely testing the wastewater for the virus since at treatment last year. People shed the virus through feces and the Houston Chronicle reports that the results provide a truer picture than testing and is often an early indicator, “often presaging positivity rate and hospitalizations by weeks.”

The reported cases of the Omicron variant so far have all reportedly dealt with mild symptoms and have not been hospitalized.

According to the CDC, the Delta variant currently accounts for 99% of COVID-19 cases that are genetically sequenced in the U.S.