Ómicron: Peruvian who carried the new variant passed through Brazil before arriving in Japan

The Peruvian traveler who has been detected today in Japan with the omicron variant of the coronavirus had previously passed through Brazil before reaching Japanese territory, according to the director of the National Epidemiology Center of the Ministry of Health of Peru, César Munayco.

The epidemiologist explained to Radio Exitosa that it has not yet been possible to determine whether the patient was infected with the omicron variant in Peru or in Brazil, so both the National Center for Epidemiology and the National Institute of Health (INS) They try to identify contacts that he had in the previous days.

“This person has also been to Brazil, so we continue to do the entire route to see where it is that he was infected”, he emphasized.

Munayco assured that, while it is not confirmed that this case has been contracted in PeruAt the moment there are no autochthonous or imported cases of the omicron variant identified in Peruvian territory.

The patient is the second case of the omicron variant detected in Japan, after identifying the new variant in a traveler from Namibia.

The Peruvian is isolated in a medical facility and had not had any contact with the other infected by omicron to date detected in Japan, according to the Japanese authorities, who are analyzing the contacts of both in search of other possible infections.

The discovery of this new variant of the coronavirus, identified as B.1.1.529 and baptized with the Greek letter omicron by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was announced last Thursday by scientists and health authorities in South Africa, based on samples taken between November 14 and 16.

Although South Africa was the first country to detect it, this variant is already present in several countries in the southern half of Africa, as well as in others in Europe and the Middle East, and now also in Japan with these two imported cases.