Washington State Reports 400 Cases of Omicron Variant, but Says Delta Remains Dominant

Health officials in the state of Washington said Tuesday that over 400 cases of the Omicron variant of COVID have been detected in the state, but Delta still represents the wide majority of cases.

The state has averaged over 1,500 COVID cases per day over the last two weeks.

"Our early surveillance from a lab standpoint was very much related to detecting Omicron in our state," state Health Secretary Dr. Umair A. Shah said at a news conference. "Now we have to shift to do more representative sampling across the entire state so we can get a better picture of how and where it's spreading."

Over 81 percent of Washington residents over the age of 12, about 5.4 million people, have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, and about 75.3 percent are fully vaccinated, with over 1.7 million in the state having already received a booster dose, according to The Seattle Times.

The announcement from Washington comes a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Omicron represented 73 percent of new COVID infections last week, with over 650,000 cases detected.

"All of us have a date with Omicron," Johns Hopkins senior scholar Dr. Amerh Adalja said. "If you're going to interact with society, if you're going to have any type of life, Omicron will be something you encounter, and the best way you can encounter this is to be fully vaccinated."

The 650,000 figure was about six times the reported Omicron total from the week prior. Many experts, including Adalja, predict the variant to continue spreading over the holidays as scientists work to determine whether it is more or less dangerous than the Delta variant that swept the country earlier this year.

Hospitalizations and deaths remain consistent, but Washingtonians will likely be in for a "difficult winter" of both influenza and Omicron because health care systems are already strained, state epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist said.

Health authorities urged eligible people to get booster shots "immediately" to protect themselves this winter and limit the ongoing spread of Omicron.

However, Shah acknowledged recent challenges in securing booster appointments throughout the state, assuring residents the state Department of Health is working with Governor Jay Inslee's office to take "aggressive" steps to increase appointment capacity.

More information about ramping up booster appointments will be available in the next couple days, according to Shah. In the meantime, he said, masking, distancing, avoiding crowds and getting tested for the virus will be important.

"This pandemic is far from over," Shah said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.