Cases of omicron crop up in Contra Costa County

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. - Contra Costa County has detected three cases of the highly contagious omicron variant, indicating there is likely community spread in the Bay Area just as people are preparing for holiday travel and gatherings.

One of the people was not vaccinated and two were vaccinated but had not gotten their booster shots, said Dr. Chris Farnitano, the Contra Costa County Health Officer.

Farnitano says none of the people had traveled.

"I think this gives more evidence that omicron is circulating in our community," he said. "Somewhere between 15-25% of all cases get whole gene sequenced, so there could be more cases out there we just haven't picked up."

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the omicron variant of SARS-CoV2 is now the dominant strain, surpassing the delta variant. In just the past week, the omicron variant went from 13% of the nation's COVID cases to 73%.

That prompted Los Angeles to announce Monday it is canceling its New Year's Eve gathering.

Rhode Island plans to reinstate indoor mask mandates.

"I am concerned about the omicron variant because it's so much more contagious," said Monica Haddad of Pleasant Hill, who was waiting for a COVID test at a pop-up site at Diablo Valley College.

The site was fully booked and unable to take walk-ins. Many people there said they wanted to be sure they were not infected with the coronavirus ahead of the holidays.

"I'm not exposed and I have no symptoms but I just want to make sure my parents don't get any chance of contracting it from me," said Jasper Shan of Concord.

Farnitano says the omicron variant has a much shorter incubation period.

"It's probably about three days, whereas with delta is was four days and with previous strains it was 5 days or more, so it spreads just really, really rapidly," he said. 

Research is being done to determine whether the omicron variant causes more serious illness. Health experts say booster shots are the most important protection right now.

Moderna released data Monday saying that its half-dose booster shot increased neutralizing antibody levels by about 37 times pre-booster shot levels.

But in Contra Costa and other Bay Area counties less than half of the eligible residents have received booster shots.

"Only about 34% have been boosted," said Farnitano. "That's really the key number we're going to be following now. What are the percentages of people in the county who are boosted.

Some health officials say even if omicron leads to milder illness, it could still overburden the health care system with a shortage of staffing.

Zenei Triunfo-Cortez is President of the National Nurses United and says some nurses are caring for more patients and fear being overwhelmed as hospitals have cut back on traveling nurse staffing that was prevalent at the start of the pandemic.

"Provide us with adequate staff to take care of our patients. We are asking for continued optimal PPE so that we can be protected," said Triunfo-Cortez.