NC's First Confirmed Omicron Case Found In UNC Charlotte Student

CHARLOTTE, NC — The first confirmed case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, health officials said Friday.

The university's sequencing program identified the positive omicron test, Mecklenburg County Public Health said.

"The student was isolated and has recovered," officials said in a news release.

Exposure was limited, officials said. One person was known to have come in contact with the student.

The best way to prevent COVID-19 is to get vaccinated, wear a mask while indoors, and wash hands frequently, officials said.

The news comes after a Mako Medical lab in Henderson, North Carolina, identified four omicron cases in the past week from Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

In the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metropolitan area, which covers parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, more than 4,400 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, or 181 deaths for every 100,000 people.

Nationwide, 239 deaths have been attributed to the virus per 100,000 people.

The broader Charlotte metro area comprises 10 counties or county equivalents — and of them, Chester County has had the most COVID-19 fatalities per capita. So far, the per capita coronavirus death rate in Chester County stands at 377 for every 100,000 people.

With the highest per capita death rate in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro area, Chester County ranks among the top 25% of all U.S. counties or county equivalents by COVID-19 death rate per capita.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, is tracking emerging variants – including the Delta and Omicron variants, which are both classified as variants of concern, North Carolina health officials said.

The delta variant is currently the predominant variant of the virus in the United States and in North Carolina. It is more than twice as contagious as previous variants, and some data suggests it could cause more severe disease than previous strains in people who are not vaccinated.

While the disease caused by the original virus spread from one person to an average of two or three people, COVID-19 caused by the delta variant spreads from one person to an average of six people. Nearly all of that spread is happening among people who are not vaccinated, state health officials said.

And early evidence suggests that the omicron variant spreads more easily than the original virus, though more data is necessary to determine whether omicron infections lead to more or less severe disease than delta in severity.

"More data are also needed to know whether reinfections and infections in people who are fully vaccinated occur more frequently with Omicron," officials said.