D.C. health officials have reported the city’s first four known cases of the coronavirus’s omicron variant.
Officials said Sunday the four cases are independent of each other. This is the first time that the omicron strain has been detected in the city.
The four infected residents had been fully vaccinated. One was eligible for a booster shot but hadn’t yet gotten it, while the status of the others was unknown, WTOP reported.
One of the four infected is a woman who had traveled to Florida and New York, WTOP reported. Two of the others had traveled to Virginia and Maryland, respectively, for the Thanksgiving holiday while the fourth person had no recent travel history.
City health officials said all close contacts have been contacted.
The omicron variant, first discovered in South Africa, has also surfaced recently in Maryland and Virginia. Though initial signs show it to be somewhat milder than previous strains of the virus, it hasn’t been definitively determined whether it’s truly less virulent.