Dec 21, 2021: Omicron cases account for 73.2 percent of new US infections over the past week as Texas reports first death linked to the variant.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the omicron variant has now become the fastest spreading variant and has overtaken the type delta and is causing infections in people who have already been vaccinated or who are infected with COVID-19 disease and have recovered.

The warning was issued by WHO chief Tedros Azanom Gabrias after US Department of Health officials reported that omicron now causes 73.2% of new cases in the past week, and as the country’s first known omicron death occurrs in the state of Texas.

Harris County, Texas, has reported its first death from the type of omecron COVID-19, in a person who has not been vaccinated, the county Department of Health said in a statement.

This is the first known recorded death of Omicron in the United States, ABC News reported. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters News Agency. The health department said in a statement that the victim, aged between 50 and 60, had a higher risk of serious complications from COVID-19 because he had not been vaccinated.

In a lightning fast about turn, omicron variant overtook delta and is now the main coronavirus strain in the US, accounting for 73.2 percent of new cases over the past week for which data is available, according to health authorities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the spike for the week ending on Saturday.

The Pacific Northwest states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, Omicron accounted for 96.3 percent of new cases.

Earlier, Israel added the United States to its “no-fly” list, citing concerns over the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

On the other hand, New Zealand also announced on Tuesday that it would delay its re-opening plans until the end of February fearing a rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The country had originally announced that non-quarantine travel would reopen by mid-January for New Zealand citizens and residents in Australia, and to foreign tourists by April.

Meanwhile neighbours Australia have adopted a shift in policy and have said they will now avoid mass lockdowns. The country must move past “the heavy hand of government” and authorities must stop shutting down people’s lives with COVID-19 lockdowns, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday, as daily infections in the country shot up to a new pandemic high.

In the South East Asian region, Singapore’s Ministry of Health has announced that it has detected a cluster of three COVID-19 cases linked to a gym, of which two have tested preliminarily positive for the Omicron variant. The result for the remaining case is pending.

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Omicron spreading faster and evading vaccines: WHO