The Czech Republic imposed restrictions on travel from southern Africa on Friday. (Represent)
Prague:
The regional hospital in the northern Czech city of Liberec has confirmed the new ‘Omicron’ strain of Covid-19 in a female patient, hospital spokesman Vaclav Ricar told Czech Television on Saturday.
“My colleagues from the department of genetics and molecular diagnostics confirmed this strain with 90% probability after sequencing analysis,” said Ricar.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Saturday said the woman was in Namibia and flew back to the Czech Republic via South Africa and Dubai.
“Based on where the patient came from and all the cases, we can confirm that the strain has been confirmed,” Ricar added.
The sample will be analyzed by a national control laboratory, he said.
“But the results were very accurate,” said Ricar.
Babis said the woman had been vaccinated and had mild symptoms of the disease.
The Czech Republic, an EU member with 10.7 million inhabitants, is currently grappling with a spike in Covid-19 infections, making it one of the worst-affected countries. in the world in terms of infection rates per capita.
On Thursday, it recorded a record-high daily growth with 27,717 new cases.
Overall, the Czech Republic has seen more than 2.1 million confirmed Covid-19 infections and 32,744 deaths.
EU officials on Friday unanimously called on all 27 countries in the bloc to limit travel from several South African countries.
The Czech Republic imposed restrictions on travel from the region on Friday.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
