The Ministry of Health has called for calm among the public after seven cases of Omicron variant were yesterday confirmed in the country.
Dr. Jane Aceng Ochero, the Minister of Health said on Tuesday that the confirmed cases were tested from passengers that traveled from Nigeria (5) and South Africa (2)
The World Health Organization has since designated the latest variant as mild but called for continued maximum vaccination against COVID-19.
Minister Aceng urged the public not to panic but further assured Ugandans of the available set measures to fight the variant.
She encouraged Ugandans to remain vigilant and continue adhering to all the stipulated Ministry of Health Standard Operating Procedures.
According to the Ministry, all the seven confirmed cases have been isolated for quickest monitoring.
Whereas the global scientists are yet to establish minimal scientific facts about the variant, the Omicron variant that was first discovered from South Africa is said to be harboring some 32 mutations (genetic changes) way above-identified previous variants of concern including the Delta and Alpha.
The World Health Organization (WHO), encourages countries to contribute to the collection and sharing of hospitalized patient data through the WHO COVID-19 Clinical Data Platform to rapidly describe clinical characteristics and patient outcomes.
The variant was designated on November, 26th, 2021 by the World Health Origination as a variant of concern, and subsequently named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE).