Omicron: Jordan identifies five more cases of Covid-19 variant
Omicron: Jordan identifies five more cases of Covid-19 variant
The five infected people had recently arrived in Jordan. The health ministry is tracking down anyone the five have come into contact with, the nation's Covid response chief said
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The infected people are isolating in an Amman hotel [Zhihong Zhuo/Getty]
Jordan said Thursday that it had identified five new Omicron infections, putting the number of cases of the new Covid-19 variant in the country at seven.
Adel Bilbeisi, chief of Jordan's coronavirus response, said the five people infected with the latest variant had arrived in the country recently, according to Anadolu Agency. He did not say where they had come from.
The five are isolating in an Amman hotel. The health ministry is tracking down anybody they have come into contact with, Bilbeisi said.
Jordan announced its first two Omicron infections last week. One was of a Jordanian citizen who had been in South Africa, where scientists first identified the new variant in November.
About 80 countries have reported Omicron cases since the variant was first identified.
The variant has caused significant international alarm.
"Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant," Tedros Adhanom, the head of the World Health Organisation, warned on Tuesday.
Jordan has seen over a million coronavirus cases, and more than 12,000 related deaths.
About 37 percent of the population is double vaccinated.
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