Kuwait detects first case of omicron variant
Kuwait's announcement follows the detection of cases in Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Kuwait reported its first case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Wednesday, becoming the latest Gulf state to detect the potentially more contagious strain, state news agency KUNA reported.
Citing a Health Ministry spokesperson, KUNA reported the infection was detected in a traveler arriving in Kuwait from an African country. The traveler, who had received both vaccine doses, is now quarantined.
The ministry spokesperson, Abdullah al-Sanad, described the coronavirus situation in Kuwait as “stable” but called on citizens and residents to get coronavirus vaccine boosters to slow the spread of the virus.
On Wednesday, Pfizer and BioNTech said preliminary testing indicated that three doses of their vaccine provide effective protection against Omicron, a highly mutated version of coronavirus that South Africa first reported last month. The US drugmakers expect to have an Omicron-specific vaccine available by March.
