{"id":54525,"date":"2021-12-10T17:46:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T17:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/?p=54525"},"modified":"2021-12-10T17:46:17","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T17:46:17","slug":"first-cases-of-the-omicron-covid-19-variant-identified-in-devon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/first-cases-of-the-omicron-covid-19-variant-identified-in-devon\/","title":{"rendered":"First cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant identified in Devon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Devon has received notification of the first confirmed cases of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant within the county<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"block_61b391ca30b8d\" class=\"councillor-quote align-right other has-white-color has-black-background-color grid-x\">\r\n\t<blockquote class=\"councillor-quote-blockquote medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n                    <div class=\"councillor-quote-title\"><p>Steve Brown, Director of Public Health Devon, said:<\/p><\/div>\r\n        \t\t<div class=\"councillor-quote-text\"><p style=\"margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt 0cm;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u201cWe have been informed by the UK Health Security Agency that there are a small number of confirmed cases of Omicron in Devon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt 0cm;\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u201cNone of the cases are linked to foreign travel.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt 0cm;\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u201cThe confirmed cases are isolating at home. All close contacts have been identified and, because their links are to people who have tested positive for Omicron, they have been advised to self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of their vaccination status, and take a PCR test.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt 0cm;\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u201cIt was only going to be a matter of time before we saw the first Omicron cases in Devon, so this does not come as a surprise. It will take a while before we have real world data to understand the full characteristics of the Omicron variant, but early indicators do seem to suggest that it is more transmissible than the Delta variant.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt 0cm;\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u201cWe do expect to see the numbers of confirmed Omicron cases rise in Devon over coming weeks, and it is likely to overtake the Delta virus to become the dominant strain across the country.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt 0cm;\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><span style=\"font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; color: black;\">\u201cWe are monitoring the data very closely and will continue to take appropriate measures to curb transmission where we see outbreak situations.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n        <div class=\"councillor-quote-aside medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n\t<figure class=\"councillor-quote-image grid-x\">\r\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small-6 cell medium-12\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/themes\/dcc-parent-v4\/images\/avatar-placeholder.png\" alt=\"placeholder image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\r\n        <figcaption class=\"councillor-quote-description small-6 cell medium-12\" >\r\n            \t        Steve Brown, Director of Public Health Devon            <\/figure>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    \r\n    <\/div>\n\n\n<p>If you want to know more about the Omicron variant, the UK Health Security Agency has <a href=\"https:\/\/eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flnks.gd%2Fl%2FeyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMTQsInVyaSI6ImJwMjpjbGljayIsImJ1bGxldGluX2lkIjoiMjAyMTEyMTAuNTAxMDAxNDEiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3VraHNhLmJsb2cuZ292LnVrLzIwMjEvMTIvMDgvaW52ZXN0aWdhdGluZy1vbWljcm9uLXdoYXQtdWtoc2EtaXMtZG9pbmctbm93LyJ9.xFqC1rm337uF5hk8UWznb5gY8j5URzC__y1Z0s3xd-g%2Fs%2F172374962%2Fbr%2F122791484265-l&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cmike.bomford%40devon.gov.uk%7Cbd5052720991473f75e808d9bc02fde8%7C8da13783cb68443fbb4b997f77fd5bfb%7C0%7C0%7C637747543426221579%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=oePHeP6xwjYAFKwILMMMV8b9CSWPHwHAaJn2DmE9OgQ%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published an interesting blog.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":53941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[293],"class_list":["post-54525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-social-care","tag-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"featured_image":{"ID":53941,"title":"coronavirus","alt":"coronavirus, under the microscope","description":"","caption":"Photo by Fusion Medical Animation on 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