Health authorities british have detected two cases of people carrying the omicron variant of the coronavirus, which are now quarantined, reported this Saturday the Minister of Health, Sajid Javid.
Javid said that the infections have been identified in the town of Chelmsford, in the county of Essex, near London, and in the city of Nottingham, in central England.
The minister indicated that the two cases “are connected” and the two people are now confined together with their relatives while further analysis is carried out.
Javid announced that four more countries will be included in the list of territories whose inhabitants, as of 4 GMT on Sunday, cannot travel to the United Kingdom (unless they are British nationals, who must quarantine in a designated hotel), up to a total of ten.
On Friday, the government redlisted South Africa – where the new variant was originally detected – Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini, now joined by Angola, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia.
“If someone has traveled to these four countries or any other on the red list in the last four days, they should isolate themselves and do a PCR,” said the minister.
The omicron variant, which has led many States to suspend flights to southern Africa, worries the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the high number of mutations it presents, since in just two weeks some thirty have already been detected, with confirmed cases not only in South Africa but also in neighboring Botswana, Hong Kong or Belgium.
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