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Harris County recorded its first Covid-19 death related to the omicron variant just as the strain became the most dominant strain of the coronavirus in the United States.
Authorities announced Monday that omicron accounted for 73% of new infections last week.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter that a man in his 50s, a resident of her jurisdiction, died of the virus. He was not vaccinated, he wrote.
“Please get vaccinated and put on the booster,” Hidalgo said in the tweet.
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Sad to report the first local fatality from the Omicron variant of COVID-19. A man in his 50’s from the eastern portion of Harris County who was not vaccinated. Please – get vaccinated and boosted.
– Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) December 20, 2021
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The death is believed to be the first omicron-related death on record in the nation, according to ABC News.
Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed a nearly six-fold increase in the proportion of omicron infections in just one week.
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In other parts of the country, the presence of the new variant is even more overwhelming.
Ómicron is responsible for approximately 90% or more of new infections in the New York area, the southeast and central parts of the country, and the northwest region on the Pacific coasts. The national rate suggests that more than 650,000 omicron infections occurred in the United States last week.
Since the end of June, the delta variant had been the main version causing infections in the country. At the end of November, more than 99.5% of infections were by delta, according to CDC data.
CDC officials said they do not yet have estimates of how many hospitalizations or deaths are due to omicron.
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