The Minister of Health and Childcare, Constantino Chiwenga says Zimbabwe has recorded its first case of Omicron variant.
Addressing the members of the media on Thursday afternoon, Chiwenga announced that the virus has been detected in the country.
“We are doing the genomic sequencing. We have already identified that we now have it in this country,” said Chiwenga.
Chiwenga did not provide further details on the origins of the case.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday gazetted rules imposing quarantine on all travelers entering the country, including returning residents.
Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans who work and live in neighboring South Africa, which was first to disclose detection of the new variant on Nov. 25., are expected to travel home over Christmas.
“We want everyone to be safe so let’s be vaccinated and then let’s follow the protocols,” Chiwenga said. “We don’t want to end up putting extra measures” in place, he said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is part of African Countries that have been put on red list by European countries following the outbreak of the Omicron Infections in South Africa and Botswana.
