The first instances of the novel coronavirus variety have been found in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, marking the first documented Omicron infections in the Gulf region.
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned media The Saudi Press Agency said on Wednesday that the case involved a citizen from a “North African country.” The infection was the first confirmed case in the Gulf, according to Saudi Arabia’s health ministry.
The infected person and his close contacts were quarantined, according to the article.
Late Wednesday, the UAE announced its first instance of infection with the Omicron variety. The patient was identified as an African woman who travelled from an African country to an Arab country by the state-run WAM news agency, without identifying which countries she travelled through.
Much about the new variety, which has been detected in more than 20 nations, is unknown, including whether it is more contagious, whether it causes people to get more seriously ill, and whether it can prevent the vaccine.
Lebanon, meanwhile, enacted a night-time restriction for the unvaccinated before and during the holiday season. On Wednesday, the country’s health minister described it as one of the measures being taken to combat a recent spike in coronavirus infections as well as a safeguard against the new type.
Although no Omicron illnesses have been reported in Lebanon, the small country, which is suffering from a severe financial crisis, is concerned that its healthcare system will not be able to handle a new wave of infections.
The COVID committee, according to Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad, aims to avoid imposing a full lockdown and seeks to urge more people to be vaccinated.
The World Health Organization’s technical head on COVID-19, Maria van Kerkhove, said in a briefing that the organisation hopes to have further information on the Omicron strain’s transmissibility within days.
She suggested that the new variety, which was initially discovered in Southern Africa, could be more transmissible than the prevailing Delta. She stated that it is unknown whether Omicron causes people to become sicker.
