New York governor says not to panic as 5 Omicron cases are reported in state

The Statue of Liberty and New York City skyline at dusk.
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Five cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been reported in the New York City metropolitan area — two in Queens, one in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one in Suffolk County on Long Island — officials announced Thursday.

New York is sequencing about 15 percent of all COVID-19 tests, New York City Health Commissioner David Chokshi said, and these Omicron cases indicate community spread. "This is not just people who are traveling to southern Africa or to other parts of the world where Omicron has already been identified," Chokshi said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.