COVID-19’s Omicron variant has been found in nearly one-third of American states so far, with new cases popping up across the country continuously. However, the Delta variant remains the dominant strain, United States health officials said on Sunday.

At least 16 states in the country have reported the new variant, which was first detected in South Africa. These include Maryland, Connecticut, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Utah, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington and Connecticut.

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Multiple cases of the Omicron variant were found in individuals who have been fully vaccinated against the disease. Most of them have only reported mild symptoms. The first case was reported in California, while the first cluster was detected in New York.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that even though several dozen cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in the country, the Delta variant still makes up 99.99% of the new COVID cases.

According to a COVID-19 tally maintained by Reuters, the United States over the last seven days has averaged 119,000 new cases a day and lost nearly 1,300 lives to COVID each day.

Meanwhile, health officials said Sunday that while the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalisations.

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“Thus far, it does not look like there’s a great degree of severity to it,” Dr Anthony Fauci said. “But we have really got to be careful before we make any determinations that it is less severe or it really doesn’t cause any severe illness, comparable to delta.”

Two years into the outbreak, COVID-19 has killed over 780,000 Americans, and deaths are running at about 860 per day.

(With AP inputs)