Omicron Creeps Upstate

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that four more cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected in New York. That brings the state’s number of cases up to 12.

Two of the latest cases were found upstate, in Oneida County, and the other two were in Long Island’s Suffolk County.

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Of the previous eight cases, one was in Suffolk County and seven in New York City.

According to a report by Associated Press, there’s still a lot to determine about omicron, including whether it is more contagious, as some health authorities suspect, whether it can evade vaccines and whether it makes people as sick as the original strain.

Cases have been found in states around the country.

Currently, officials locally and around the country are reporting almost all of the cases now being detected and putting people in the hospital are the Delta variant.

People who are not vaccinated are urged to schedule appointments now to stop the spread of these two very transmissible variants and people who have been vaccinated and are eligible are being told to get their booster shot as soon as possible.

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Broome and Chenango are among those adding booster clinic appointments.

Broome County has doses of the Moderna booster available at the Health Department offices on Front Street Thursday, December 9 from 1 to 3 p.m., the Johnson & Johnson booster from 1 to 3 on December 16 and the Moderna booster from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. December 21. Residents can go to www.gobroomecounty.com to make an appointment.

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Chenango County is taking appointments for all three brands of the booster for Friday, December 10, first doses of the Pfizer vaccine December 13 at the Perry Brown Intermediate School, December 14 and the Bainbridge Greenlawn School and December 15 at Oxford High School.

Chenango is also having a Moderna booster clinic at the Old Label Shopper store in Norwich Friday, December 17 and a first dose Pfizer clinic December 20 at the Sherburne Earlville Elementary School.

Residents can check the Chenango County Health Department facebook page for information or call (607) 337-1660.

People getting a booster should bring their vaccination card to their appointment.

Answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

Vaccinations for COVID-19 began being administered in the U.S. on Dec. 14, 2020. The quick rollout came a little more than a year after the virus was first identified in November 2019. The impressive speed with which vaccines were developed has also left a lot of people with a lot of questions. The questions range from the practical—how will I get vaccinated?—to the scientific—how do these vaccines even work?

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