News of Austin's positive test comes after the Pentagon last week tightened restrictions at its headquarters over concern about the highly transmissible Omicron variant
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also revised down the Omicron proportion of cases for the week ending December 18 to 22 per cent from 73 per cent.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the county's leading infectious disease expert said that the real problem for the US hospital system is that we have so many people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet been vaccinated.