Almost “every case” of the Omicron variant of the Chinese coronavirus at Cornell University has occurred in fully vaccinated students, some of whom have also received the booster shot, the university revealed this week.
The Ivy League school has experienced a spike in cases in the last week, reporting 1,345 cases from December 9-15, according to the university’s coronavirus dashboard, which also revealed that 97 percent of the campus — students, faculty, and staff — are vaccinated. Students attending on-campus for this academic year, 2021-2022, are required to be vaccinated, with exceptions for religious or medical reasons.
Cornell President Martha Pollack provided an update to students this week, noting a “rapid spread” of the virus and the lab identifying “evidence of the highly contagious Omicron variant in a significant number of Monday’s positive student samples.”
“While I want to provide reassurance that, to date, we have not seen severe illness in any of our infected students, we do have a role to play in reducing the spread of the disease in the broader community,” Pollack said:
https://twitter.com/Cornell/status/1470795949492613128
However, Joel Malina, vice president for university relations, told NPR that “virtually every case of the Omicron variant to date has been found in fully vaccinated students, a portion of whom had also received a booster shot.”
Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted Omicron “might even be less severe” than the Delta variant.
“There is some suggestion that it might even be less severe, because when you look at some of the cohorts that are being followed in South Africa, the ratio between the number of infections and the number of hospitalizations seems to be less than with Delta,” Fauci told the AFP.