Tacoma — Washington state now has 13 confirmed cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, with three of those tied to outbreaks at high school wrestling tournaments.
An earlier tally reported by the state Wednesday showed Pierce County with two Omicron cases, King County with six, Whatcom and Thurston counties with one each as of the state’s variant report released Dec. 15.
News quickly followed that three of the 80-90 cases so far being investigated with COVID outbreaks at high school wrestling tournaments were Omicron.
“We clearly have increased transmission due to this variant,” said Dr. Scott Lindquist, state epidemiologist for communicable diseases, at Wednesday’s news briefing.
He noted, “There’s at least another 10” from the wrestling cases with the marker indicative of Omicron, but not yet confirmed.
“This does not bode well to have an event so early in the appearance of Omicron in Washington state that already has these kids involved with positive cases with this new variant,” Lindquist said.
“So, it doesn’t look good.”
State officials said to expect Omicron numbers to rise quickly, with another 100 cases already showing a marker consistent with the variant waiting for lab sequencing confirmation.
Washington state reported its first three Omicron cases Dec. 4, with one case each in King, Thurston and Pierce counties.
According to the state’s latest variant report, three of the state’s Omicron cases were vaccine breakthrough cases.
King County earlier reported its first case was one of those breakthrough cases. Pierce and Thurston counties are not releasing vaccine status with their Omicron cases.
Following Wednesday’s news of the large scale COVID-19 outbreak, Lindquist said state officials have been discussing potential changes to guidance regarding large gatherings and sporting events.
“Is this something that we should really consider is not a safe event anymore and during what is now clearly an Omicron outbreak?” he said.
“I’ll be honest, I looked at some of the pictures and videos of this event, and there were a ton of people in indoor spaces, crowded into bleachers not wearing masks. So I can say clearly: No, guidance was not being followed,” Lindquist said.
“It’s a good reminder to all of us going to public events in indoor arenas. We really ought to be wearing masks and doing some social distance.”
The New York Times reported Tuesday that University of Washington researchers found 13 percent of 217 positive coronavirus case specimens collected on Wednesday had an Omicron mutation, up from about 7 percent the day before, and 3 percent the day before that.
Brett Cihon, COVID-19 communications specialist for Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, told The News Tribune in response to questions, “We continue to monitor Omicron and work with the state on identifying cases. As with the other variants, we expect to see more cases from this latest variant.”
For all the Omicron fears, the Delta variant is still hanging in there, though likely to be replaced by Omicron in the coming weeks.
Dr. Jeff Duchin, Seattle-King County health officer, on Wednesday told reporters that someone is hospitalized for COVID every three hours in King County, with eight hospitalizations a day.
Of its Omicron cases, patients “did not have international travel or known links to one another. And this indicates that local spread is occurring,” he said.
