Botswana’s Health Minister, Edwin Dikoloti, verified 19 instances of COVID-19’s newly identified Omicron strain.
Additional assessments and analysis of other positive COVID-19 samples found 15 new cases of the Omicron strain on Sunday, Dikoloti said at a press conference, after four foreigners were pronounced infected.
“We’ll keep expanding our conduct tracing to make sure no possible cases go unnoticed,” Dikoloti said.
Dikoloti went on to say that the Omicron version was first found in Botswana after four foreign persons who had just visited the country for a short time tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 11 and the variant was confirmed as the Omicron variant on Nov. 24.
“This finding should not be confused with the fact that the strain originated in Botswana.”
NAN