A woman takes a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test at a pop-up testing site as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread in Manhattan, New York City, US, Dec. 27, 2021. )(REUTERS/Jeenah Moon)
The Omicron variant was estimated to be 58.6% of the coronavirus variants circulating in the United States for the week ending Dec. 25, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The fast-spreading variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November, with the first known case in the United States identified on Dec. 1 in a fully vaccinated person who had traveled to South Africa.
The Delta variant accounts for 41.1% of all U.S. COVID-19 cases, according to the public health agency’s data on Tuesday.
The agency said the data includes a modeled projection that may differ from weighted estimates generated at later dates.