Egypt detects its first three cases of coronavirus Omicron variant
Written by News Room on December 20, 2021
Egypt on Saturday said it had detected its first three cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant, at the height of the economically vital tourist season.
Three Egyptians tested positive on their return from overseas, the health ministry said without specifying where they had travelled from.
One of them had mild symptoms and the other two had none, it added.
The country’s air and tourism sectors, which suffered under global lockdowns for the past two years, had just started to recover and were counting on end-of-year holiday visits.
Omicron is the biggest threat to global public health, the G7 group of economically developed democracies said this week.
Scientists remain uncertain how dangerous the highly mutated Omicron variant is, but early data suggests it can be more resistant to vaccines and is more transmissible than the Delta variant.
Aneen Kantyok
