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Cuba rules out Omicron strain in traveler from South Africa

omicrom
Havana, Dec 4 (Prensa Latina) Cuba's Pedro Kouri Tropical Medicine Institute (IPK) ruled out that a patient who arrived in the Villa Clara municipality of Placetas from South Africa carried the Omicron variant of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus, Granma newspaper reported on Saturday.

The IPK, which investigates, prevents, controls and eliminates communicable diseases, said that after testing the Cuban traveler, the patient carries the Delta strain of the pathogen that causes Covid-19.

The traveler, who arrived in the central Cuban province on November 25, remained at the Manuel Fajardo Military Hospital, without symptoms so far, Placetas authorities told local media.

The director of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Villa Clara, Neil Reyes, said that he remains asymptomatic and all his direct contacts have been isolated and tested negative in their first PCR test.

The doctor warned that only the results of the National Reference Laboratory could determine whether it is the new variant of the coronavirus called Omicron, which the World Health Organization has classified as a variant of concern.

For his part, the president of BioCubaFarma, Dr. Eduardo Martinez, assured on his Twitter account that Cuban scientists are closely following up on the reports on the behavior of the new Omicron variant.

We are already designing specific vaccines. If necessary, we will develop it in a short time, said the scientist.

jg/rgh/znc

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