What Urgent Care Providers Should Know About the Omicron Variant—First, You’ll Be Seeing a Lot of It

Just 3 weeks after the first Omicron-related diagnosis of COVID-19 in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that this latest variant of the virus has become the dominant one in this country, accounting for 73% of new cases here as of this writing. Bear in mind that’s the national figure; Omicron is even more dominant in New York, New Jersey, and parts of the Midwest, South, and Pacific Northwest. The U.S. also reported its first death from Omicron COVID, as well. While the CDC acknowledges that the current vaccines may not necessarily offer the same level of protection against Omicron as they do against other forms of the virus, so far there is no evidence that it is any more deadly than other forms. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 due to the Omicron variant are cough, fatigue, and congestion or runny nose.