COVID-19 cases tied to an omicron outbreak in the East Bay last week are among fully vaccinated and boosted staff members at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center, according to a spokesperson for the hospital.
The initial case was reported to the Alameda County Public Health Department by Kaiser on Nov. 30.
Moss said the appearance of omicron in people who were boosted is potentially concerning but doesn’t necessarily mean that the vaccines aren’t working as well as they have against delta and earlier variants.
“What it tells us is that people who are vaccinated, including people who have received the booster, can be infected with this variant. It doesn’t tell us anything about how likely that is to happen compared to unvaccinated people,” he said. “It may be that vaccinated people are still less likely to be infected, we just don’t know from just this cluster. That’s one of the questions that remains outstanding.”
