Panic time in New York

By Alex P. Vidal

“He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.”—Bertolt Brecht

INSTEAD of focusing on the coming Yuletide Season after the recent successful Thanksgiving Day, New Yorkers have been rattled by the reported “arrival” of Omicron Variant in the Big Apple.

The Filipino community was also saddled by the news and was taking it seriously.

Filipinos of New York, a popular Filipino social media page, has alerted its members to “get tested for #COVID19 as soon as possible” if they attended the Anime NYC 2021 Convention at the Javits Center from November 18-22.

As soon as the news came out, some Filipinos here contacted each other and shared what they learned and what they know from other sources about the reported presence of the dreaded variant here.

The advisory came after five cases of the heavily mutated Omicron coronavirus strain were identified in New York State on December 2 (Thursday), including four in New York City, as the region emerged as an early U.S. hot spot for the concerning variant.

Robert Bacaycay, administrator of Filipinos of New York, an “official group” page in Facebook with more than 16,000 members, attached the statement from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on the Omicron Variant in the advisory he posted on December 2.

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Here’s Mayor de Blasio’s statement:

“We are aware of a case of the Omicron variant identified in Minnesota that is associated with travel to a conference in New York City, and we should assume there is community spread of the variant in our city. We are working closely with the State and the CDC, as well as the Javits Center’s event organizers, and our Test and Trace Corps will be contacting conference attendees. This conference required masks and complied with our Key2NYC requirement to mandate vaccination.

Anyone who attended the AnimeNYC conference, especially anyone experiencing symptoms, should get tested immediately and take additional precautions, including social distancing.

I urge all New Yorkers to get vaccinated, wear a face mask while indoors and in public, and help our city beat this virus once and for all.”

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On December 2 evening, both Mayor de Blasio and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the ominous development together in a hastily called news conference.

Hochul, who urged calm in the face of the mysterious variant, said one case had been identified in Suffolk County on Long Island, two had been spotted in Queens and one had turned up in Brooklyn.

The governor also described an additional New York City case, but did not pinpoint its specific location within the five boroughs.

The Long Island case involved a vaccinated 67-year-old woman who had recently returned from South Africa, Hochul said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the other four were immunized.

“This is an urgent moment,” de Blasio said.

The variant, which has some 50 mutations, appears to spread swiftly and may dodge protection provided by vaccines. But little is known about its virulence.

“We want people to know that the early cases that have arose are not life-threatening,” Hochul said. “They seem to be minor cases. And that is a source of good news for us right now.”

The new cases signaled that community spread has begun in New York City, de Blasio warned. “We have to assume that means we’re going to see a lot more cases,” the mayor said.

The announcement arrived just hours after authorities identified an omicron case in a Minnesota man who visited a packed Manhattan convention last month.

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The Minneapolis-area man, who was identified as a vaccinated adult resident of Hennepin County, felt mild symptoms after he returned home from the Anime NYC 2021 convention at the Javits Center. His symptoms have since resolved, according to officials.

The convention ran from Nov. 19 to Nov. 21

Tens of thousands of anime fans attended the event at the sprawling glass convention center. Visitors at the Javits Center were required to show proof of vaccination and to wear masks inside, according to the venue.

Even after the announcement of the five cases, de Blasio stopped short of escalating the city’s masking requirements to an outright mandate. On Monday, top city health officials issued a strengthened recommendation that New Yorkers strap on masks inside, but did not require face coverings.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)