New York records FIVE cases of COVID Omicron variant, raising US total to eight, as Governor Kathy Hochul says there's 'no cause for alarm' and Bill de Blasio warns that more will follow

• Five cases of COVID-19 Omicron variant were confirmed in New York state on Thursday
• Four cases were detected in New York City and one in Suffolk County on Long Island
• The Suffolk case is vaccinated, but vaccine status of the others is unknown
• It comes after just hours after confirmation of Omicron in man who attended massive NYC anime convention 
• The full danger of Omicron remains unclear but it has many troubling mutations and appears to spread easily
• Governor Kathy Hochul insists the situation is 'not cause for alarm' and downplayed possibility of lockdown
• New York recorded its largest single-day increase in new COVID cases since January on Thursday
• US total of confirmed Omicron stands at eight: Five in New York, one each in Minnesota, Colorado, California 

Five cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant have been confirmed in New York state, officials said on Thursday. 

'New York State has confirmed five cases of the Omicron variant,' Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement. 'Let me be clear: This is not cause for alarm. We knew this variant was coming and we have the tools to stop the spread.' 

Officials said the newly confirmed cases consist of one individual in Suffolk County, two in Queens, one in Brooklyn, and one in an undisclosed New York City borough.

The Suffolk County case is in a vaccinated person, and the vaccine status of the others is unclear. Hochul urged New Yorkers to get vaccinated, boosted, and wear masks. 

The new cases in New York come just hours after it was revealed that a Minnesota man who attended the massive Anime NYC convention late last month in Manhattan was found to have been infected with the Omicron variant. 

Hochul also said Thursday that that man only suffered very mild symptoms, and has since recovered.  

But New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the geographic spread of the new positive tests suggested the variant was now undergoing unchecked 'community spread' in the city, and wasn't linked to any one event. 

'We gotta assume there's a lot more behind that and that it has been here for a meaningful amount of time,' he said, warning more cases of the variant were now inevitable. 

New York state recorded 11,300 new COVID cases on Thursday, the highest single-day total since January of this year, when the nation was in a devastating third wave, flashing a worrying trend as both Omicron and holiday gatherings loom. 

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Hochul and de Blasio, who held a joint press conference in a sign of unity, both insisted that the situation in New York now is vastly different than that of March 2020, when there were no vaccines, hospitals were overwhelmed and punishing lockdowns were imposed on the populace. 

The governor insisted earlier on Thursday she would not lead a knee-jerk response when Omicron's spread was confirmed in the state.

'I will not cause a panic to the people of this state who have already been through so much. I am not an alarmist. I'm not considering shutting down schools or the economy at this time,' Hochul said shortly before the first cases were confirmed.

'That would be an over-reaction. Imagine where we would be if we didn't have the vaccination. Then we would be in a crisis situation,' she added. 'I don't see a return to that as long as the vaccine and the boosters continue to work.'

Public health experts are still assessing the risks of Omicron, which has several troubling mutations that suggest it could spread quickly and potentially evade immunity from vaccines or prior infections. 

Omicron is classified by the World Health Organization as a 'variant of concern' as scientists work to determine how it may compare with the predominant Delta variant in terms of transmissibility and severity. 

The Omicron variant was discovered by South African health officials last week, and while not much is known about it yet, it is was recently found to be 2.4 times more infectious than previous variants.

Due to its high number of mutations, it's also believed to be vaccine evasive, though cases have mostly been very mild.

The news in New York came just a day after the U.S. announced its first case of the variant had been detected in California, in a person who had recently traveled to South Africa.

Then, Omicron was confirmed in a man who tested positive days after attending a huge anime convention in Manhattan's Javits Center. 

Officials reported another case Thursday in a Colorado woman who had recently traveled to southern Africa.

The widespread and quickly emerging reports suggest that the variant is now already circulating unchecked within the United States.

It's unclear what role the variant may be playing in a new surge in cases in New York, which hit its highest daily new case count on Thursday. 

January 31 was the last time New York recorded more than 11,200 cases in a single day, as a disastrous early 2021 Covid surge begin to wind to an end.

COVID-19 infections have nearly doubled over the past week, from around 5,500 new cases a day on November 19, to more than 11,300 on Thursday. 

While the state did experience an uptick of cases during the summer Delta wave, the early autumn season has already topped the high of around 6,000 cases per day over the summer.

Currently, New York sequences under four percent of positive Covid tests, meaning that any Omicron cases among the 96 percent that are not sequenced would not be detected. 

The state, and specifically New York City, is on high alert now after news of a man who recently traveled to the city having the variant.

Minnesota health officials revealed on Thursday that a man from Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, was discovered to have the second case of Omicron found in the U.S. 

The man attended Anime NYC last week, a three day event that ran from November 19 to 21 at the Javits Center in Lower Manhattan - along with around 53,000 attendees from around the nation.

He returned to Minnesota, and began feeling symptoms of Covid on November 22.

Two days later, on November 24, he tested positive for Covid.

Officials report that his symptoms were mild and have already resolved, he also abided by public health protocols after he tested positive.

He had no recent history of international travel, making it clear that he contracted the virus inside of U.S. borders - meaning the variant has already been circulating within the country for at least ten days.

The man is fully vaccinated as well. 

'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,' de Blasio said in a statement.

'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.'

He also urged any Anime NYC attendees to get tested as soon as possible. 

'We're not defenseless against this variant,' Gov Kathy Hochul said at a news conference on Thursday, encouraging New Yorkers to get vaccinated and wear masks in public places to protect themselves.

'In addition to vaccination and boosters, we can slow the spread of this variant and all COVID-19 variants by using the tried-and-true prevention methods of wearing masks, staying home when sick, and getting tested when appropriate.'

'I don't want anyone to panic over this,' Hochul said.

She also said that this time the state would not be caught off guard like it was in March 2020, when New York City suffered a massive surge right at the start of the pandemic. 

As of Thursday evening, eight cases of the variant have been sequenced in the U.S.

The variant was first detected in South Africa last week, but is believed to have originated in either Botswana or in a European country.

South African health officials are reporting that cases of the variant they have seen so far have been more mild than those of other variants.

It has 50 mutations, including more than 30 on the spike protein that the COVID-19 vaccines target to prevent infection.

For comparison, the Delta variant - which was responsible for a massive surge of cases in the U.S. over summer - only had seven mutations of the spike protein.

The Covid Genomics UK Consortium released imaging on Thursday showing just how drastic the differences between the Delta and Omicron variant are. 

Because of these many infections, vaccine experts fear the shots could be rendered ineffective against the new variant.

A South African expert also reports that the variant could bypass natural immunity provided by previous infection, and it re-infecting Covid survivors at a rate three times that of other variants.

Early reports from the nation suggest that infection's from Omicron are relatively mild when compared to other strains of the virus, though.