HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Omicron variant has made its way down to the South.
There have been cases detected in both Georgia and Mississippi. So, before that first positive case is detected here in Alabama, here are some things you need to know about the Omicron variant.
We've seen many COVID-19 variants emerge out of this pandemic.
"Certainly, we are going to see mutations, we have seen mutations and again, this is not the last mutation that we're going to see but at least at the moment in Alabama, our variant is Delta," said Alabama Department of Public Health Area Administrator Dr. Karen Landers.
Luckily for us, the current vaccine used to fight the virus does a pretty good job at fighting off the Delta variant.
"We do have good efficacy with our vaccines against Delta," said Landers.
Both the Delta and Omicron variants are variants of concern.
One of the characteristics of this kind of variant is that treatments and vaccines may be less effective at fighting off them off.
So, what about the Omicron variant? Will the current vaccine we have be able to stand up to it?
"I really think it's too early to speculate on that but I do think that we know that it's at least as infectious as Delta, at least from the information that we have at the moment," said Landers.
Again, luckily Landers doesn't think this will be the case.
"We don't have any indication at the moment that this is not going to work with Omicron. So, if you've not been vaccinated, go ahead and get vaccinated," said Landers.
As our neighboring states start to see an emergence of omicron cases -- one begs to question... Is the Omicron variant here in Alabama?
"If it's here, it means it's infected somebody. Okay? We just don't have a positive test and as we have to say, until we have someone who has a positive test for this, we don't have it in Alabama, again until we have a positive test. Given surveillance and given the time frame for surveillance, you know, I do expect that we will pick up this variant in our state and especially since it's in Georgia, I think relatively soon," said Landers.