Ireland reports 1st case of Omicron variant of Covid-19, says govt

Ireland has detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, said the country's Department of Health.

The case is associated with travel from one of the southern African countries that have been declared by the Irish government as high-risk countries for the spread of the new variant, the department added on Wednesday in a statement, without giving further details.

The Irish national radio and television broadcaster RTE reported earlier on Wednesday that the Dublin-based National Virus Reference Laboratory had carried out tests on a number of samples over the weekend and one of the eight samples that underwent genome sequencing was confirmed having the Omicron variant.

The report said scientists are not aware of any additional cases associated with the confirmed case, and there is no evidence of community transmission of the variant so far, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Irish government last Friday declared seven southern African countries as high-risk countries where the Omicron variant was first detected, advising against all non-essential travel to and from these countries by tightening the issuance of visas.

The seven countries are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The government also ruled that Irish citizens returning home from these countries shall undergo strict home quarantine with two PCR tests during quarantine.

The Irish Department of Health on Wednesday reported 3,793 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the national tally to 573,905.

Till date, there have been a total of 5,707 deaths related to Covid-19 in Ireland, including 55 deaths newly reported in the past seven days, said the department.

--IANS

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