NY governor declares state of emergency to prepare for omicron

Hochul’s declaration on Friday is one of the first emergency steps taken by a state in the U.S. against the new variant, known as omicron, whose discovery was announced Thursday. 

The nation’s top infectious disease expert,Anthony Fauci, said in an interview Friday with CNN that there have been no omicron cases detected in the U.S., although he acknowledged that doesn’t rule out the possibility the variant could be in the country.

“We continue to see warning signs of spikes in COVID this winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it’s coming,” Hochul said in a tweet.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3NwYWNlX2NhcmQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib2ZmIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19jb252b3NfcmVwbGllc18xMzAwNSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJzd2FwIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6M319&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1464365754606886917&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fstate-watch%2F583233-ny-governor-declares-state-of-emergency-to-prepare-for-omicron&sessionId=de23f3603f492d92e33726e5a0d8c68acea0afa6&theme=light&widgetsVersion=f001879%3A1634581029404&width=550px

The executive order, in effect until at least Jan. 15, allows nonessential procedures to be postponed in hospitals in order to increase hospital capacity.

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