(UPDATED THURSDAY EVENING): Two Santa Barbara individuals came into contact with the person who arrived by plane in San Francisco from South Africa and tested positive for the omicron variant in the nation’s first confirmed case, according to Dr. Henning Ansorg, the Santa Barbara County public health officer.
Dr. Ansorg told the News-Press Thursday morning that those individuals are in self-quarantine and will be tested three to five days from now. Dr. Ansorg said he doesn’t know which flight, such as a connecting flight, the individuals were on.
The News-Press was the first media outlet to report Thursday on the Santa Barbara individuals.
In addition to the omicron variant update, Dr. Ansorg told the News-Press Thursday that the county’s indoor mask mandate would be extended Friday for another 30 days.
In other developments Thursday afternoon and evening, more confirmed cases of the omicron variant were reported in the U.S. As of Thursday evening, the total was 10 cases: five in New York state, two in California (including a new case reported that evening in Los Angeles County), one in Hawaii, one in Colorado and one in Minnesota.
For more details, see Friday’s News-Press.
Dr. Henning Ansorg, Santa Barbara County public health officer, told the News-Press that two Santa Barbara individuals came into contact with the airline passenger who tested positive for the omicron variant. He said they will be tested three to five days from now and are in self-quarantine.
