Two of the first three people in Maryland to test positive for the COVID-19 omicron variant had been vaccinated but had not yet received booster shots, state officials said Saturday.
State health officials on Friday had announced the detection of the first three cases of the variant, which the World Health Organization labeled a “variant of concern.” All three Maryland cases are in the Baltimore area, officials said.
Officials said two of the individuals live in the same household, and one recently traveled to South Africa where the variant was first detected. The third individual had no recent travel history and was an “unrelated case.”
Michael Ricci, a spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan, said in a tweet Saturday that questions had come up about the booster status of the first three omicron variant cases.
“Neither of the two vaccinated individuals has received a booster shot yet,” Ricci tweeted.
Health officials had said that two of the three people who tested positive are vaccinated against COVID-19, including the person who traveled and the third individual. The person who lives in the same household as the traveler is not vaccinated. None have been hospitalized.
The first cases of omicron in the U.S. were detected on Wednesday.
State health officials on Saturday reported an additional 1,866 cases of Covid-19 and 15 more deaths, bringing Maryland’s total to 592,679 confirmed cases and 11,022 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The state had a seven-day positivity rate of 5.43 as of Friday, the health department reported.
Hogan had announced Wednesday that the health department will take steps to detect for omicron and other variants by sequencing samples from positive coronavirus cases.