FRANKFORT, Ky. — Omicron is here in Kentucky, and Governor Andy Beshear said that multiple counties across the state are reporting signatures of the variant.
The first confirmed case was reported by Gravity Diagnostics on Friday, but the state department of Public Health has found positive samples in patients from Kenton, Campbell and Fayette counties.
Testing performed on wastewater by the University of Louisville and Louisville Metro Health have found samples in Jefferson County.
"This is one of the most transmissible viruses, this variant, in modern human history," Beshear said. "We hope that the sickness it causes are milder, and there is some indication of that, but this thing is going to spread so fast."
He warned that any school that isn't doing mandatory masking, any business that is not having their employees wear masks could see entire schools, entire shifts get infected very quickly.
"To put this in perspective," Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of Kentucky Department for Public Health, said. "One person who get influenza, may infect one to two other people."
He said the Delta variant, really escalated COVID's transmissibility.
"One person with the delta variant may infect up to five other people under the right circumstances," Stack said. "It may be that one person with omicron could infect up to 18-20 additional people. This is not the progression we want."
Last week, public health officials said almost every case of COVID-19 in Kentucky was the delta variant. However, now that Omicron's been found in the three big metropolitan areas, it will spread very rapidly.
"We could go from Omicron not being present at all, to Omicron being half or more of all the variants in the state in a span of a couple weeks," Stack said.
He said Omicron could wipe out Delta in a month or less.
The good news? Stack said countries most impacted by this, like South Africa and the United Kingdom, haven't shown a major spike in hospitalizations.
"It doesn't mean it's not dangerous or important," Stack said. "It doesn't mean there haven't had increases in hospitalizations."
Stack said with the UK, they have a highly vaccinated elderly population, and South Africa has a younger population.
"There's a lot of complexities," he said.
Stack said Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are still very effective at preventing severe illness that could result in possible death.
But he said because Omicron is so effective at infecting people that the breakthrough cases are going to go up.
"The number of people, who are even fully vaccinated and boosted, who could have mild disease, think about having cold symptoms, will go up almost certainly," he said.
"But remember, if the vaccines keep you from ending up in the hospital or from dying, they have done their job."
According to Stack, 62% of Kentuckians are fully vaccinated, but only 17% are fully vaccinated and boosted.
In some counties, the proportion of people vaccinated is less than 1 in 3, which Stack said is "a recipe for disaster."
"If it sweeps through your community, it will hit everybody and hit quickly," he said.
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Stack added that data shows prior COVID infections are not sufficient enough to protect from the Omicron variant.
Even monoclonal antibodies, which have been effective at preventing severe cases of the disease and preventing death, may not work now.
"Two out of the three of those monoclonals do not appear to be effective against the Omicron variant," Stack said. The worst news is that those two are the ones we have the most of.
"You cannot wait to get sick and then hope the monoclonals will recuse you, now more than ever vaccination is so important," he said.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of the story had the omicron variant found in the wastewater of multiple Kentucky counties. The wastewater sample was done only in Jefferson County. The headline has changed to the counties where the variant was found.
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