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New strain of COVID-19: Ómicron has already spread in Europe

With cases identified in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Belgium, concern for New Omicron variant of COVID-19 increased in the Old Continent yesterday, while the isolation of several countries in southern Africa is accentuated.

The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced a tightening of entry measures in his country. Anyone arriving in the UK, wherever they come from, will have to stake a PCR test and remain isolated until the result is obtained. In addition, the mask will once again be mandatory in stores.

Previously, el British Department of Health had indicated that “it has been confirmed that two cases of COVID-19 with mutations compatible with (the variant) B.1.1.529 have been identified in the United Kingdom”, specifying that both are related to each other and that they were identified after “a trip south of Africa “.

Later, Germany reported two infections with the Omicron strain in travelers arriving from South Africa at Munich airport, and reported a suspected case in a person arriving in Frankfurt. Italy, for its part, also detected a case in the Naples region, in a man who had returned from Mozambique. Belgium and Israel registered cases on Friday.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stated that the risk of the new variant of COVID-19 spreading across Europe is “high to very high.”

In the Netherlands, 61 passengers from two flights that landed in Amsterdam on Friday from Johannesburg tested positive for COVID-19 and were isolated in quarantine, reported the Dutch health authority, which considered that the new variant “probably” is among those travelers. .

ISRAEL IS ISOLATED

Israel said yesterday that it will ban all foreigners from entering the country and reintroduce phone tracking technology, in order to contain the spread of the new variant.

It is the first country to completely close its borders by Ómicron, it has confirmed so far one case of the variant and seven other suspicious infections.

AFP and Reuters

Photo: AP

MAAZ

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