Kaiser employees get omicron at Wisconsin wedding

OAKLAND, Calif. - Fully vaccinated and boosted Kaiser employees are in isolation after exposure to the omicron coronavirus variant.

The group had gone to a wedding in Wisconsin where they contracted the virus and brought it back to the Bay Area.

The hospital identified 12 COVID cases last week, and 11 of the cases are employees of the Oakland Kaiser.

All the workers isolating at home have reported mild symptoms.

The infected Kaiser staff members range in age from 18 to 49 and at least one attendee had recently returned from international travel, according to public health officials.

A state lab used genomic sequencing to identify five infected with variant. As of Thursday, genomic sequencing data was not yet available for all 12 cases. 

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A UCSF doctor detected the first U.S. omicron case on Dec. 1, pinpointing it to a San Francisco resident.

There appear to be 11 confirmed cases of the omicron variant so far in California, but the real number is certain to be higher, according to officials. 

Signs of the variant have been recently been found in wastewater in Sacramento and Merced counties, though no cases have been reported there.