November 30, 2021
The new omicron variant of the coronavirus hasn’t yet been detected in the United States. But many epidemiologists say it’s a question of when, not if, it will arrive, as other prominent strains of COVID-19 have over the past two years.
Colorado identified the delta variant in May of this year, soon after it was first found in the U.S. About six months later, it now accounts for all of the cases here, and has created a stress on hospitals and healthcare workers that is affecting patients, showing the potential for mutations of COVID-19 to disrupt life in Colorado.
To buy time to learn more about omicron’s transmissibility and how it might fare against COVID-19 vaccines, the U.S. has limited travel from some of the countries where the variant has been detected. CPR spoke to public health experts in Colorado to learn how the state will know when omicron arrives here, and what can be done to contain its spread.
Read more at CPR.