Jamaica – As Jamaica continues to deal with the negative rippling effects of COVID 19, it now has to deal with the new variant, as the country has recorded its first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Dr. Christopher Tufton Wednesday said, the variant was detected in a traveller who returned to the United Kingdom after a short stay in Jamaica tested positive, Health and Wellness Minister,
During the “COVID Conversations” Tufton said “We have been advised through the UK’s international health regulations system that a traveller to Jamaica has returned a positive test result for COVID-19 and the genomic sequencing confirms Omicron as the variant for this result,”
He added “This is a traveller who came here on a short stay in one of our resort facilities and went back and was confirmed for COVID and confirmed for the Omicron variant,”.
Tufton said that as a result, “there are several conclusions that can be drawn from this to include the fact that people may have been infected by others within the population and/or this particular individual could have interacted sufficiently while here to infect or contaminate others.
Dr. Tufton believes that based on analysis Omicron is here within our population,”
While this is a new challenge to deal with Dr. Tufton called onJamaicans not to panic but to heighten their adherence to prevention protocols, especially in light of the festive season, urging nationals to get vaccinated.
Jamaica has recorded 2, 450 deaths and 92, 127 infections linked to the COVID-19 pandemic since March last year.
