The individual is a fully vaccinated San Francisco resident who returned from South Africa on November 22, the CDC reported. The person had mild symptoms and is self-quarantining.
All close contacts have also tested negative, the CDC noted.
During a press briefing shortly after the case was disclosed, Chief White House Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci advised Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and pressed that those who are eligible should get their booster shots, describing the vaccines as the best protection against the virus and the omicron variant.
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“We know what we need to do to protect people,” Fauci told reporters while encouraging Americans to wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus.
"[T]he fact is that people should wind up getting vaccinated and boosted if they’re eligible for a boost. I keep coming back to that because that’s really the solution to this problem," Fauci stated.
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He revealed the infected individual had not received a booster.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that President Biden had been briefed on the omicron variant, noting that he meets with his medical team daily. Biden, on Thursday, is set to outline plans to combat the coronavirus, and particularly the omicron and delta variants during the winter months.
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The individual arrived four days before South Africa announced the discovery of the variant and tested positive on November 29, the same day the Biden Administration's ban on travelers from eight African countries took effect.
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The ban has come under fire from prominent health experts and former administration officials who assert it is ineffective and punitive against African countries, especially as Western governments have failed to deliver needed vaccine supplies and logistics to the continent.
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Fauci, however, defended the policy as necessary to buy time to understand the new variant better and noted it was only temporary.
"We did struggle with that," Fauci said on Wednesday in response to a question from a reporter for Today News Africa. "We wanted to see if we could buy time, temporarily, so I do hope that this gets sorted out and lifted before it has any significant impact on your country."
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Fauci also said he doesn't think Americans should be doing anything differently with their lives and emphasized the importance of the mitigation strategies known to be effective — getting vaccinated, masking in crowded public spaces, and physical distance.
In a joint statement, California and San Francisco public health officials declared the case was identified "thanks to California's large-scale testing and early detection systems."
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