Portugal Finds 13 Cases of Omicron COVID-19 Variant at Lisbon Soccer Club

Portugal detected 13 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Monday, all involving players and staff of top pision soccer club Belenenses SAD, one of whose players recently returned from South Africa, health authority DGS said.

Thirteen cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant have been found among players of Portugal’s top-flight football club Belenenses SAD, according to initial results from the country's national health institute (INSA).

One of the players has recently returned from South Africa, where the new strain was discovered last week, the institute said.

“Preliminary tests carried out at INSA, strongly suggest that all 13 cases associated with players of Belenenses SAD are linked to the variant of concern Omicron,” the institute said in a statement sent to Portuguese media.

Genome sequencing is being carried out for confirmation, INSA said, but added “the predictive value of the tests carried out is already very high.”

The club's cluster was already big news in Portugal, since Belenenses had to play a first pision game on Saturday night against Benfica with just nine players on the field, drawing international criticism. The game was eventually abandoned when more Belenenses players dropped out, with Benfica winning 7-0.

Benfica's players will be tested as part of a wider intensification of vigilance, testing and isolation now that the new variant has been found in Portugal, the country's Director-General for Health Graça Freitas told TSF radio. "We'll have more proactive isolation and a more intensive testing of contacts," she said.

INSA also noted that tests carried out on 218 passengers who arrived in Lisbon from Mozambique on Saturday detected two cases of COVID-19. One was of the Delta variant and the other was not possible to identify, the institute said.

Portugal has now suspended flights from Mozambique, which is the country's only commercial passenger link to the southern African countries subject to a European Union flying embargo.

According to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, at least 13 Omicron cases were discovered among 61 passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 on flights from South Africa to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.