Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Bahrain Detects 1st Omicron Variant Case


Sat 11 Dec 2021 | 08:37 PM
Rana Atef

Bahrain announced on Saturday that the country detected the first Omicron COVID-19 case, Al-Ain reported.

Health authorities added that the patient was overseas, and he/she wasn't in contact with anyone inside the kingdom.

Moreover, all protective measures and quarantining the patient were applied strictly to prevent the spread of the infection.

Therefore, the authorities urged all residents in Bahrain to have COVID-19 vaccines, and booster doses because vaccination help in reducing the risks and the symptoms of the virus.

The state could be the sixth Arab country that detected the presence of the newly emerged strain, after the KSA, the UAE, Lebanon, Jordan, and Tunisia.

The new Omicron variant, which was discovered initially in South Africa, has heightened global anxieties because it is thought to be more deadly than the delta variant.

The World Health Organization (WHO) designated it as a ‘variant of concern’ on Friday because it has a high number of mutations (32), potentially making it more transmissible and deadly.

WHO has given it the name Omicron, which is the Greek alphabet’s 15th letter.

Following news of the new variant, the US, the EU, Canada, Israel, Australia, and other countries have imposed travel restrictions on many southern African countries due to health concerns.