GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Omicron, the latest COVID variant, is beginning to cause concern, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
Dr. Andrew Jamison, an infectious disease specialist with Mercy Health says we will know when it arrives in West Michigan because our current COVID testing will track it.
"If you go to Meijer, Spectrum or St. Mary's and get your regular COVID test, we'll identify it. We will know it because the state does sequencing every week," he said. "They will get a certain proportion of the positive tests are out there, do some advanced genetic sequencing on it and tell us what strain it is."
Jameson also says he is hopeful that studies will find our current vaccine protects against the new Omicron variant.
"They're taking antibodies from someone who's previously affected and challenging the virus with it. So there's more to come. But I think there's good reason to hope that the vaccine will remain effective, at least a mitigating if not preventing it."
For information on where to get a COVID vaccine visit Vaccinate West MI.
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