Health officials have confirmed Virginia’s first case of the omicron variant of COVID-19, the Virginia Health Department announced Thursday. The sample came from a northwest Virginia resident who had no history of international travel during the exposure period, but had traveled domestically.

The report comes a week after Maryland confirmed the first three omicron cases in the D.C. area and as the region is seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases more broadly, according to the Washington Post’s COVID data tracker.

“We knew it was only a matter of time before we would record our first omicron infection in the Commonwealth,” M. Norman Oliver, Virginia’s state health commissioner, said in a statement.

First discovered in Botswana and South Africa, World Health Organization declared the omicron variant a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26. Since then, researchers around the globe have been scrambling to produce information about the variant, including whether it spreads faster than other variants. Early data and anecdotes suggest that it spreads faster, but causes less severe illness than the delta variant, but researchers are still working to confirm these findings. Dr. Anthony Fauci told WTOP last week that since there’s still little confirmed data, the variant is “nothing to panic about” at the moment.

Oliver, with VDH, said scientists are studying how effective vaccines are against omicron, and noted that delta is still the most prevalent variant in the U.S.

“We have very effective vaccines that can interrupt the chain of transmission and reduce the odds that unpredictable mutations like the delta and omicron variants will emerge,” Oliver said. “Do your part. Get vaccinated if you are eligible. Get your booster shot if you’re eligible. Vaccination is how Virginia, the U.S. and the world will put this pandemic behind us.”

Previously: 

Maryland Confirms Region’s First Three Cases Of Omicron COVID Variant