Colorado monitoring for omicron variant

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is closely monitoring for the COVID-19 omicron variant and is in contact with the White House, Centers for Disease Control, and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials about the new variant.

According to the World Health Organization, the variant was first reported from South Africa on Wednesday, Nov. 24. There are currently no confirmed cases of the omicron variant in Colorado, but the state has several mechanisms to detect it.

The state lab, along with private and commercial labs, conducts genome sequencing on samplings of tests. This allows scientists to detect the variants. Colorado is fourth in the nation for percentage of cases genome sequenced, based on recent CDC surveillance data.

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