Saudi Arabia on Wednesday confirmed its first case of the new Coronavirus variant Omicron, believed to be the first reported in the Arab world.
The case was detected in a Saudi man who returned from a North African country, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA reported, citing an official at the Health Ministry.
The official did not name that country.
Earlier, oil-rich Saudi Arabia had banned flights to and from several African countries amid fears of the spread of Omicron.
The Omicron strain has been classified as a “variant of concern’’ by the World Health Organisation, WHO, amid fears that it is more transmissible, although much remains unclear.
dpa/NAN
