Omicron, the coronavirus variant, which first surfaced in late November, has so far been detected in more than 60 countries, as health officials worldwide try to contain its rapid spread.
coasts and that means we are going to continue to see the number of cases rise. reporter: the first confirmed case was yesterday in san francisco, fully vaccinated but unboosted individual recently returned from south africa. also mild symptoms and doing well. all close contacts have been contacted and thus far have tested negative. reporter: we still don t know for sure if omicron is more transmissible or significantly evades the vaccines. but there is every reason to believe that kind of increase you get with the boost would be helpful in preventing severe disease of a variant like omicron. reporter: right now the delta variant is still dominant worldwide and here in the u.s. here is where we are. averaging a whopping 85,000 plus new infections every day and 911 deaths. this winter we ll make free at home tests more available to americans than ever before. reporter: more than 80% of
find yours on the vrbo app. you get more with aarp medicare advantage plans from unitedhealthcare. like $0 copays on tier 1 and tier 2 prescription drugs. wow! uh-huh. $0 copays on primary care visits. wow! uh-huh. and with unitedhealthcare, you get access to medicare advantage s largest provider network. wow! uh-huh. most plans even have a $0 premium. so go ahead. take advantage now. wow! we re back with the health lead and vastly different responses to this new variant omicron. in germany today a national lockdown for everyone who is unvaccinated. japan taking a strict approach to travel.
the company ceo this week who said he did not think the existing moderna vaccine would be effective against the new variant. here is the clarification. take a listen. i think some of the word choice may not have been optimal. it seems likely that the omicron variant is going to make a dent in our vaccine efficacy. in fact in all vaccine efficacy. combination of mutations brought together there are we think going to increase the possibility of immune escape. the one thing we don t know for sure is how big is the dent, the decrease in vaccine efficacy? does anyone really know? we don t, jake. that is the danger. comments by press relief. comments by ceos from large companies who have a lot to gain in moving the market ahead of a data set. we need to be sure we don t get overly excited about any data on either side right now and should focus on what we can do to