LAS VEGAS — Nevada health officials have confirmed the state's first case of COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant.
The woman in her mid-20s who tested positive for the variant in Southern Nevada is fully vaccinated but has not received a booster dose, the district health officer in Las Vegas said Tuesday.
The case is still being investigated. No other details have been released.
Cases of omicron previously were confirmed in neighboring California and Arizona.
"We knew that it was only a matter of time that we would identify the omicron variant in Southern Nevada," said Dr. Fermin Leguen, health officer for the Southern Nevada Health District.
The World Health Organization classified the new variant as a variant of concern on Nov. 26.
U.S. health officials estimate that a small, but growing proportion of new COVID-19 infections are due to omicron, and that the rise is particularly dramatic in some places.
Two weeks ago, omicron accounted for less than 0.5% of the coronaviruses that were genetically sequenced in the U.S. That rose to about 3% last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.
But it varies from place to place, and is as high as 13% in the New York/New Jersey area, according to the agency.
