GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina confirmed its first case of the Omnicron variant Friday and Greensboro health experts said its only a matter of time before it comes to the Triad.
UNC-Charlotte said one of its fully vaccinated student tested positive for the COVID-19 strain, after traveling out of state for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Health officials said the student has recovered and no close contacts contracted the virus.
Delta remains the most prevalent strain of the virus across the state and the country. U.S. experts said early Omicron cases appear to be mild but it seems to be easy to transmit.
It's also easy for labs to spot during testing.
"It has a very different set of signature mutations that make it easy to differentiate from the Delta variant," Rick Tankersley said.
Tankersley is UNCC's Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development.
UNCC found the case through testing at its own lab. Dr. Cynthia Snider, an Infectious Disease Expert at Cone Health said several universities have their own labs but many testing programs rely on the state. Not every test is checked for variants.
"In Guilford County, we are running about 35,000 tests. You can't expect the state to do sequencing on every single one of them," Snider said.
She said tests from those who recently traveled out of state or had close contact with an Omicron case get priority but UNCC is making changes after a student tested positive.
"We're working on increasing the number of samples that we're sending just to make sure as we're moving into the winter months and next year, we have a strong surveillance system," Dr. Raynard Washington said.
Washington is the Deputy Public Health Director in Mecklenburg County.
Health officials said it often takes more time to test for variants than to diagnose a COVID case. They still recommend getting the vaccine or a booster as the best way to avoid COVID, Omicron or otherwise.