New York Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett tested positive for COVID-19 Monday as authorities warned the highly contagious omicron variant will infect many more Americans, including scores of fully vaccinated people.
A rapid COVID-19 test caught the infection in Bassett, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, before Gov. Kathy Hochul’s media briefing in Manhattan. Bassett was “feeling fine” and promptly left the governor’s office as a precaution, Hochul said Monday.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Bassett was infected with omicron or the delta variant, or how the case impacted other members of Hochul’s administration.
But the case joined a growing list of high-profile officials nationally who’ve experienced so-called breakthrough infections as fully vaccinated people, meaning they received two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, or one Johnson & Johnson dose.
www.lohud.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/12/22/omicron-breakthrough-cases-new-york/8987108002/