New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Friday ahead of potential COVID-19 case spikes this winter, and warned that the new Omicron variant is coming.
The new COVID-19 variant—identified as B.1.1.529 and named Omicron on Friday by the World Health Organization (WHO) in an emergency meeting—was first observed in Botswana in southern Africa and carries dozens of mutations on the spike protein that could make the virus capable of evading immunity from prior infections or vaccination.
