BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says the omicron variant is the dominant version of the coronavirus in the United States.
The news couldn't come at a worse time for those traveling and planning gatherings for upcoming holidays.
While highly transmissible, doctors say vaccinations and a booster shot will help.
"Whether you're exposed to delta or omicron, you should be very well protected against serious disease that could put you in the hospital," said Dr. William Schaffner at Vanderbilt University Medical School.
Doctors say breakthrough cases are also inevitable. That's one reason Edwige Moses, and her husband Kurt, got tested Monday at the state site in Brooklyn Park.
"I don't want to go into Christmas Eve and have dinner with everyone and not knowing if I have COVID or not," said Edwige.
Doctors recommend taking a saliva PCR test two to three days before your gathering, just like Edwige did.
"I thought, well, I'd rather just know," said Edwige.
Testing sites in Minneapolis and St. Paul are now open two hours earlier and the one in Duluth is adding an extra day before they all close for several days starting Friday.
The sites also offer the rapid antigen swab test that experts recommend taking the same day as your gathering.
They also suggest laying low in the days leading up to Christmas, along with not engaging with large crowds and keeping your mask on before the get-togethers that so many of us are looking forward to.
"We continue to encounter people who are defiant and denying what is actually going on," said Kurt. "We're in a pandemic, so it only seems logical that this is what we would do to get through it."
Mayo Clinic is also offering people its interactive COVID-19 map that helps people make decisions this holiday season. Scientists worked together to track cases and put together a model that incorporates real time data.
Using the data, the tool has county-by-county information nationwide - including vaccination rates - and offers predictive modeling that forecasts where hot spots will emerge over the next 14 days.
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