Nepal reports two Omicron variant cases. Two people have been confirmed to be infected with the Omicron Covid-19 variant in Nepal, making it the first reported case of the new strain, the Ministry of Health and Population announced on Monday.
According to the Ministry, the two infected individuals are a Nepali (71) and a foreigner (66) and they were fully vaccinated against Covid.
Upon his arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, the foreign national had produced a recent negative PCR report.
The Nepali national had come into contact with the foreigner after which they both eventually started showing symptoms and got tested, leading to a positive diagnosis, said the Ministry.
The Health Ministry said that both infected patients are recovering and have been placed in an isolation facility under the supervision of health workers.
The ministry said that contact tracing of 66 people, who came in close contact with the infected people, has been done.
During testing, the S-gene target was a failure following which a gene sequencing was done and the Omicron variant was detected during the test.
As many as 66 samples of the individuals that had come in contact with the two infected were tested, the results for which came negative.
All the samples were tested in National Public Health Laboratory in Teku.
The World Health Organization designated Omicron as “a variant of concern” on November 26 and several studies are underway to understand its nature.
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