By Patrick Mcardle
RUTLAND HERALD
Health care leaders in Vermont say they are preparing to respond to omicron, the latest identified variant of the COVID-19 virus, although it hadn’t been identified in the state as of Monday afternoon.
Information posted by the World Health Organization on omicron on Sunday stated scientists are not yet sure whether the variant is more easily spread or causes more severe disease than the initial virus or the delta variant. There also are no answers yet about how effectively vaccines will contain it, but there is some preliminary evidence of a greater risk that omicron may reinfect patients who have had COVID before.
A statement from Dr. Mark Levine, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health, directed Vermonters to healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine so they can get vaccinated or schedule a booster.
“Right now, vaccines are still our best defense against COVID-19. If you have not yet gotten your vaccine or booster shot, now is the time. Both take about two weeks to be fully effective, and as we get further into the holiday season, the more people who are protected, the better off we will all be,” he said.
Dr. Rick Hildebrant, chief medical information officer for Rutland Regional Medical Center, said COVID has mutated into variants before and it’s expected to happen again.
“We’ve seen that this is a virus that is susceptible to mutation and with each mutation, it can pose new challenges to us. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the omicron variant. There are concerns around its level of transmissibility or how likely it is to spread from one person to another. We know that, as an example, delta was much more transmissible than the native COVID-19 virus,” he said.
There are concerns, however, because there are many cases and rapid spread in places where omicron has been identified, he added.
Hildebrant encouraged Vermonters to get their vaccines, although he acknowledged there is more to learn about how the omicron variant will respond.
“The real purpose of getting a vaccine is to prevent hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID. If someone were to get exposed to COVID and get a mild case of sniffles, we would call that a success. I think that as the COVID virus continues to mutate, it’s likely that the vaccine is going to offer less protection against actually contracting the illness, but it will continue to provide benefit against serious illness associated with COVID,” he said.
For now, Hildebrant said the vaccine will protect against the need for serious medical interventions like intubation, but said he expects vaccines will be modified in the future in response to omicron and other variants that are likely to happen.
Asked to comment on the omicron variant, Anna Noonan, president and COO of Central Vermont Medical Center, responded by email: “CVMC’s infection prevention team is closely monitoring information related to Covid-19 and the omicron variant to ensure that our clinical teams are always prepared to provide the best care possible to central Vermonters.”
While omicron hasn’t been identified in the U.S., Hildebrant said he wouldn’t be surprised if it’s identified in America. He said its identification in South Africa is a tribute to their scientific work and testing and not an indication the variant started there.
“This variant is not limited to a single country. It’s global. We’re seeing more and more countries detecting evidence of the variant. This doesn’t mean those are the first cases in the country by any stretch of the imagination. It just means that those are the ones that were detected,” Hildebrant said.
Only a small number of COVID tests are sent to a larger laboratory for sequencing so Hildebrant said he “would not be shocked in any way, shape or form if, in the coming days to weeks, we see news headline of ‘omicron in America.’”
When a variant is more transmissible, causes a more severe degree of illness or resists vaccines, the result is likely to be another surge of COVID, according to Hildebrant.
Rutland Regional has been preparing to respond to that kind of scenario for a year and a half.
“We did not want to be caught in the situation that was going on in the rest of the country when the pandemic first started,” he said.
That means taking steps like finding ways to increase capacity and rearrange operations. Hildebrant said there had even been some improvement in replenishing staff.
“Whether it’s again delta or omicron, we’re going to be in a very good position to be able to take care of the community,” he said.
Levine said the health department continues to obtain genomic sequencing information on COVID specimens and will report any detection of the omicron variant in Vermont.
The COVID dashboard maintained by the Vermont health department was not updated over the holiday weekend but according to numbers posted on Monday, 561 new cases were identified on Wednesday — close to the highest one-day total seen in Vermont. The most recent total was 237 new cases identified.
patrick.mcardle @rutlandherald.com
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