Saudi Arabia reports first Omicron case

Saudi Arabia has recorded the Gulf’s first confirmed case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a citizen returning from North Africa, a health ministry official said Wednesday.

The strain, which was first announced by South Africa but has since been discovered to have been present earlier in Europe, has prompted governments around the globe to reimpose travel restrictions, despite warnings from the World Health Organization this could do more harm than good.

“One case of the Omicron variant has been detected in the kingdom — it was a citizen coming from a North African country,” the ministry official told the state SPA news agency.

“He has been put in isolation, as have his contacts, and the necessary health measures have been taken.”

Saudi Arabia last week halted flights from seven southern African countries, mirroring similar moves by other government, but travel links with North Africa have remained unaffected. 

The kingdom had been lifting some of the remaining restrictions it imposed early in the pandemic, allowing worshippers at the Muslim holy places to resume praying shoulder to shoulder from October.

Since the pandemic started, Saudi Arabia has recorded 549,000 cases of Covid-19, 8,836 of them fatal.

More than 47 million doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the kingdom, which has a population of nearly 35 million.


AFP

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Helicobacter pylori

The 50 men accused in mass rape of Gisèle Pelicot

NAPS School Fees Support Fund (NSFSF)

“Detected in Germany” – What you should know about new COVID-19 variant XEC spreading across world

Dozens of civilians killed in two days of intense fighting in Sudan

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐦-𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐦-𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚

15 facts about the late Ogun NACHPN Scribe, Late Adekunle Adeniji