New York health officials report at least five cases of Omicron variant

Officials say positive tests suggest variant is undergoing community spread' in the city but say there's no cause for alarm

Multiple cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in New York, health officials said Thursday, including a man who attended an anime convention in Manhattan in late November and tested positive for the variant when he returned home to Minnesota.

In addition to the conventioneer, health officials said tests showed five other people recently infected with Covid-19 had the variant. They included a person in the city's Long Island suburbs who had recently traveled to South Africa, residents of Brooklyn and Queens and another case possibly linked to travel.