Breaking News! Omicron Variant Enters Palestine, Immediately 3 Cases Appear

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Palestine has detected the first three cases of the Omicron variant - which experts believe is highly contagious - in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this as reported by The Guardian, Thursday, December 16.

All the cases detected were people who had recently returned from abroad, health ministry spokesman Kamal Al-Shakhrah said in a statement.

Previously, the variant which was found by South African scientists officially entered Indonesia. This first case was found in one of the janitors at Wisma Atlet.

The government decided to lock down a number of towers at Wisma Atlet after the discovery of a janitor who was exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Spokesperson for the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Jodi Mahardi said the step was taken to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant in the community.

"The government is currently taking mitigation steps by locking or locking several athletes' guesthouse towers so that this variant does not spread widely," said Jodi in a written statement.

Not only that, Jodi said, the government is working to intensify whole genome sequencing in the country. The goal is that the spread of the new variant can be detected and anticipated.

"The government will also carry out strict genome sequencing spread throughout Indonesia," he said.

Jodi said all these decisions were taken when Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan chaired a coordination meeting regarding the discovery of the first Omicron variant in Indonesia on Thursday morning. This coordination meeting was held with a number of related parties dealing with the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

"The Coordinating Minister said that from the start he was quite careful with this considering that Indonesia is such a large country and the potential for Omicron's entry is also very large," he said.