The Doctor Ricardo Jorge National Institute of Health (INSA) confirmed today that 13 cases of the new Ómicron variant have been detected in Portugal. All the cases were confined to Belenenses SAD players.
In a statement this morning, INSA confirmed that it had also analysed samples from 218 passengers onboard a flight from Maputo (Mozambique), which landed on Saturday (27th of November) at Lisbon airport. From this, two new cases (1 x Delta variant 1 x Unable to Determine) were identified, but were said not be to related to the SAD players.
Preliminary trials strongly suggest that all 13 cases associated with Belenenses SAD players are the Ómicron variant, and health authorities have imposed prophylactic isolation on all contacts of confirmed cases, regardless of vaccination status and level of exposure. In turn, these contacts will be subjected to two further tests (5th and 10th day).
INSA has already started genome sequencing for the final confirmation of these cases, however, the predictive value of the tests already carried out is very high.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
