NEW YORK — A New York City anime convention held late last year likely wasn’t an omicron superspreader event, as many had feared, new reports show.
One of the first confirmed U.S. cases of the omicron variant was found in early December in a Minnesota man who attended the convention, raising concerns about a mass outbreak at the gathering of some 53,000 fans of the film and TV animation style. Studies released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no evidence of widespread transmission at the convention beyond a cluster of of the Minnesota participant’s close contacts.
Among results obtained for 4,560 attendees, 2.6% tested positive, according to the CDC. Of 20 specimens analyzed genetically, 15 cases were linked to delta, the dominant variant preceding omicron. The remaining five were tied to omicron and were all part of the cluster of close contacts.
