The Harris County health department in Texas announced the first death linked to the Omicron COVID-19 variant on Monday, a man who was unvaccinated .
As per ABC News, this is the first known recorded Omicron fatality in the United States. A request for comment from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not immediately returned.
The victim, who was between the ages of 50 and 60, was at a higher risk of serious COVID-19 consequences since he was unvaccinated, according to the health authority.
The man was the first local mortality from the variation, according to county judge Lina Hidalgo.
“Please,” Hidalgo added, “be vaccinated and boosted.”
According to CDC sequencing data for the week ending December 18, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is responsible for 73 percent of US coronavirus infections.
The first publicly confirmed death from Omicron was reported in Britain earlier in December. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Times Radio on Monday that 12 individuals in the UK had died as a result of the variation, and 104 are presently in hospital with it.
