More cases of omicron variant detected across five states

Google has been one of the highest-profile U.S. companies to say it will require workers to come back into the office, but on Thursday it pushed back its Jan. 10 date for mandatory in-office work.

The decision comes amid growing uncertainty about how the new omicron variant of the coronavirus could change the pandemic, prompting border closures even as officials lack definitive answers on just how dangerous the variant is.

“We have safely opened more than 90% of our U.S. offices, and in recent weeks, nearly 40% of U.S. Googlers came in. While these signals are encouraging, we’re going to wait until the new year to assess when U.S. office locations will be ready to transition out of voluntary work-from-home,” Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of security, said in an email sent to staff that was obtained by The Washington Post.

Google was one of the first large companies to send workers home at the beginning of the pandemic. Unlike tech companies such as Twitter and Microsoft, which say they will allow remote work indefinitely, the search giant has said the majority of workers will need to return to the office at least part time.

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has been cleared to return to the court after a false-positive test landed him in the NBA’s coronavirus health and safety protocols earlier this week, the NBA announced Thursday.

The 36-year-old James was held out of a Tuesday win over the Sacramento Kings and sent back to Los Angeles after registering a positive test that was collected Monday, but he will be eligible to play when the Lakers host the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday.

“LeBron James has cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols,” the league said in a statement. “James was originally placed in the protocols on Tuesday, Nov. 30 after a series of tests delivered conflicting results, including an initial positive test that was collected on Nov. 29. Additional testing confirmed that he is not a positive case.”

Ten cases of the omicron coronavirus variant have now been detected around the United States, with half of them confirmed in New York on Thursday.

New York and Hawaii are the latest states to announce infections, and officials in both states said there is evidence of “community spread.” California, Minnesota and Colorado have also detected cases.

Health officials have been bracing to discover more infections since the first reported U.S. case of omicron was announced Wednesday. The patient was a San Francisco resident who recently traveled to southern Africa, where omicron was initially identified.

The five New York cases appear to be unrelated, state officials said, and do not seem to be linked to an anime convention that tens of thousands of people attended from Nov. 18 to Nov. 22. The Minnesota man found to have the omicron variant attended the conference at New York City’s Javits Center from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21 and developed mild symptoms — now resolved — on Nov. 22, according to health authorities.

The city of New York is urging people who attended Anime NYC to get tested for the coronavirus.

“This is not a cause for major alarm,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said of the confirmed omicron cases Thursday, urging people to wear masks, get vaccinated and get booster shots.

Many of the known patients around the country have recently traveled to Africa. Hochul said that one of the New York patients with omicron is a 67-year-old woman from Suffolk County who spent time in southern Africa and returned to the United States in late November. The woman had some measure of vaccination, the governor said, but it is not clear how many doses.

The vaccination status of the other four New York patients, all residents of New York City, was not clear.

The Hawaii patient had previously had covid-19, was not vaccinated and had “no history of travel,” health officials said.

President Biden on Thursday announced that inbound international travelers must be tested for the coronavirus within one day of global departure, regardless of nationality or vaccination status. The policy, which takes effect Dec. 6, toughens protocols for vaccinated travelers, who had been able to get tested as long as three days before departure.

The move, which federal officials had weighed earlier this week, comes after the White House imposed travel restrictions on eight nations in southern Africa following warnings from scientists about the emergence of the omicron variant.

Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist and infectious-disease specialist who advised Biden’s transition team on the coronavirus response, said she was unhappy that the White House prioritized restrictions and testing for international travelers while overlooking domestic flights.

“When you think about Texas, it’s the size of France — and it operates as its own country in many respects,” Gounder said, calling for a renewed focus on how state policies contribute to the virus’s spread. “If you’re really trying to prevent spread of dangerous variants, you should be providing similar standards across the board.”

Oklahoma’s attorney general on Thursday sued the Biden administration over its coronavirus vaccine mandate for members of the military, further escalating a standoff over requirements for the conservative state’s National Guard.

Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor (R) is asking a federal court to halt enforcement, declare the mandate unconstitutional and prevent the federal government from withholding funding for the Oklahoma National Guard and its members. The Pentagon warned this week that Guard members who refuse vaccination will not get paid and will be barred from training, jeopardizing their careers.

National Guard troops refusing vaccine will lose pay, Pentagon says, in warning shot to GOP-led states

Thousands of Oklahoma Guard members have defied the defense secretary’s August order that service members get vaccinated against the coronavirus, with the support of Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R). Republican leaders in other states have signaled interest in following suit.

In a statement Thursday, Stitt said that as commander in chief of the state’s National Guard, he will “continue fighting to protect Oklahoma against this alarming pattern of unconstitutional federal overreach coming from the Biden administration.”

The Oklahoma National Guard’s commanding general has defended his directive countering federal vaccination requirements, telling troops in a private town hall event that he was following orders from the governor.

“I did not initiate a civilian-military crisis just because I thought it was cool, right?” Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino said, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by The Washington Post.

While the United States braces for the unknowns of omicron, epidemiologists warn that the country, particularly the Northeast and Upper Midwest, is still headed toward a winter surge fueled by the delta variant as people travel for the holidays and gather indoors during cold weather.

Beds have been full for seven weeks with a flood of mostly unvaccinated patients, a hospital official said. The hospital routinely turns down other overwhelmed facilities trying to transfer covid-19 patients — sometimes saying no 15 or 20 times a day.

Officials are urging Americans to get booster shots to protect themselves as much of the country heads indoors. Just over 1 in 5 Americans have received them as immunity from initial shots starts to wane.

LONDON — Scientists say they have identified clues to what triggered blood clots in rare cases of people who took AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine.

The very rare but sometimes deadly clots led to pauses in the vaccine’s rollout last year in Europe and had public health experts worried it could fuel hesitancy, even as they stressed that the benefits of the vaccine far outweighed any risks.

The vaccine, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford and widely used in European countries and places such as Canada and India, has not been approved in the United States. The United States temporarily halted use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after a handful of blood clot cases were reported among the millions of people who received those shots but lifted the pause after a safety review.

Colorado on Thursday became the third state to announce a case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, this one in a woman who had recently traveled to southern Africa.

The Arapahoe County resident, who is fully vaccinated but has not yet received a booster, is isolating at home with mild symptoms, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said in a news release. The announcement came days after the discovery of a case in California and hours after one in Minnesota.

Colorado health officials said in the release that it is “particularly critical that Coloradans heed caution,” including getting vaccines and boosters, masking in indoor public spaces, limiting large gatherings and practicing physical distancing.

The Colorado state public health laboratory confirmed the presence of the omicron variant, the news release said. It was discovered through routine case investigation and flagged for follow-up due to the patient’s recent travel. The health department issued an isolation order in the case; all close contacts of the woman have tested negative for the virus.

“CDC is coordinating all travel-associated interstate and international contact tracing efforts and will work with airlines to identify all potentially exposed passengers,” the news release said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The health department called for people who have recently traveled internationally to get tested three to five days after their return, regardless of symptoms or vaccination status.