As the White House announced a handful of new initiatives to battle spiking virus case numbers, Texas health officials have reported the first death tied to the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
The health officials in Harris County informed that the death had occurred in an unvaccinated man aged between 50 and 60, who had previously been infected by COVID and had underlying health conditions that had put him at a higher risk of severe complications.
Some local officials, such as Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, have used the case to encourage Texas citizens to get vaccinated against Covid-19 stressing that due to the incredibly quickly spreading of Omicron strain, the county’s Covid threat level has been raised to the second-highest level.
Harris County Public Health Executive Director Barbie Robinson pointed that the case is a reminder of the severity of COVID and its strains, urging Texans to get vaccinated and also get their booster shot.
The Texas death case comes in a time when the Omicron variant, with approximately 73% of coronavirus infections linked to it, makes up the majority of new COVID cases in the US as of Monday.
Last week alone there were more than 650,000 infections documented in the national data, which captures the infection rate and cases for the week ending December 18. Additionally, CDC numbers show that there was an almost six-fold increase in infections in just one week.
In an effort to combat rising cases, the Biden administration announced a new set of initiatives including mobilization of 1,000 US soldiers to help with staffing issues at hospitals, purchase of half a billion at-home testing kits as well as increasing federal supplies to help with hospital capacities.
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