Five fully vaccinated California residents contracted the Omicron COVID variant while attending a wedding in Wisconsin, various reports say. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that no cases have been contracted by residents at this time, however Wisconsin’s Department of Health (DHS) is investigating the “outbreak.”
“DHS and the City of Milwaukee Health Department are actively reaching out to all Wisconsinites who were close contacts, and isolation and quarantine protocols are being followed,” DHS reportedly said in a statement.
The cases were contracted on November 27 at a wedding in Milwaukee County, local health officials shared. “The five people who have confirmed omicron cases are part of a group of 12 vaccinated people in Alameda County, California, who have tested positive for COVID,” the Almeda County Department of Public Health confirmed.
The health agency said one of the positive individuals attended the wedding after traveling internationally. The other seven individuals in Almeda County who have tested positive are not confirmed to have contracted Omicron or not.
The five Omicron cases are “mildly symptomatic cases,” according to health officials. It does not appear as if any of them are hospitalized.
According to Wisconsin’s COVID dashboard, Milwaukee County, where the Omicron variant was contracted, has what is considered “very high” case activity from November 23 through November 30, with around 550 cases per 100,000 people. That is an increase of around 22 cases from the prior week, and an increase of nearly 100 cases based on the data from the first two weeks of November.
As of Saturday, Wisconsin has had a total of 889,078 COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic and is currently reporting around 3,000 new cases per day, which is about half the number of newly reported cases they were having during the peak of the virus in 2020.
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Hayley Feland is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
Leave it to Californians to make matters worse. Kind of wish the would just succeed already. I’d support it.
OMG! Omicron! Cold and flu season will never be the same! To be honest; in 22 years of Bedside Nursing, the only years I got the Flu were years I submitted to the flu shot. I am done. What does not kills you makes you stringer. If you are sick, stay home, rest, hydrate and eat chicken soup. Mama always told me ‘stupid is as stupid does.’