The Ministry of Health has announced that a case of the highly-contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19 has been detected in Bahrain from an individual arriving in the kingdom from abroad.
The Ministry stated that all necessary mitigation protocols and precautions have been taken, including the isolation and precautionary quarantine of the active case.
The Ministry noted that the case did not have any local contact and was placed in isolation upon arrival.
In line with the directives of the Cabinet and the Government Executive Committee, the Ministry affirmed that it will continue to monitor the global situation and will take all necessary measures to protect public health.
The Ministry of Health stressed the importance of adhering to all precautionary health measures issued by the National Medical Taskforce for Combatting the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and urged all to get vaccinated and receive a booster shot.
The authorities have not stated how the infected individual travelled into the country - by road, sea or air.
Omicron is the most heavily mutated version of coronavirus found so far.
It is not certain where Omicron came from, but it is thought it evolved in a single patient who was unable to beat the virus.
It has been named Omicron by the World Health Organisation, following the pattern of Greek code-names like the Alpha and Delta variants.
Omicron has such a long list of mutations that it was described by one scientist as 'horrific', while another suggested it was the worst variant they'd seen.
It has now been detected in more than 30 countries and there are signs it may be able to bypass some of our immunity. But there are also claims that it could be milder than earlier versions of Covid, such as Delta.
Experiments by Pfizer-BioNTech have shown a third dose of a vaccine massively boosts levels of neutralising antibodies. Results suggest that three doses fare as well against
Omicron as two doses did against the original variant, which was very good.
There are four private laboratories in Bahrain equipped to detect the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the GDN revealed earlier this week.
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