The omicron variant has made it to Massachusetts, as a woman from Middlesex County who had traveled out of state has been diagnosed with the first case of it here, the Department of Public Health announced Saturday.
The omicron variant has made it to Massachusetts, as a woman from Middlesex County who had traveled out of state has been diagnosed with the first case of it here, the Department of Public Health announced Saturday. The woman is in her 20s and is fully vaccinated. She has mild disease that has not required hospitalization, according to DPH. The case — the first of the new omicron strain in the state — was identified through genomic sequencing performed at New England Biolabs, which has its headquarters in Ipswich. There is some limited evidence that omicron could be more transmissible than other variants such as delta, but scientists are still working to find out more information.