In the wake of mounting concerns over the spread of the new Covid variant Omicron, Maldives on Tuesday recorded its first case of the Omicron variant.
The Maldives Health Protection Agency (HPA) confirmed that it had detected the Omicron virus after conducting genomic sequencing on samples taken from a tourist from South Africa who arrived in the country on November 27.
Following the discovery of the Omicron variant, the Maldivian government has banned travel to the Maldives from South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe.
It also informed that the Maldivian citizens and work permit holders travelling from these countries must undergo PCR tests and quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.
According to the latest figures from the HPA, a total of 92,368 active cases of Covid-19 have been detected in the country, out of which 1,796 are active cases. The country has recorded 255 deaths from the virus so far.
A total of 364,691 people in the Maldives have received two doses of a vaccine against Covid-19, while 15,850 people have received a booster shot.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization on Monday advised against using the blood plasma of patients who have recovered from Covid-19 to treat those who are ill, saying current evidence shows it neither improves survival nor reduces the need for ventilators. The method is also costly and time-consuming to administer, the WHO said in a statement on Monday.
The hypothesis for using plasma is that the antibodies it contains could neutralize the novel coronavirus, stopping it from replicating and halting tissue damage. Several studies testing convalescent blood plasma have shown no apparent benefit for treating Covid-19 patients who are severely ill.
As it is suspected that re-infection risk may be higher with Omicron variant, the survivors of previous infection with the virus that causes Covid-19, known as SARS-CoV-2, may be at higher risk for re-infection with the Omicron variant than with earlier versions of the virus, according to preliminary findings.
In South Africa, where Omicron was first reported, researchers reviewed data on nearly 2.8 million infections and saw that while the risk of a first infection rose when the earlier Beta and Delta variants spread during the pandemic's second and third waves, the risk of re-infection was low and did not change.
But last month, as Omicron spread, daily numbers of re-infections spiked, the researchers reported on Thursday on the website medRxiv ahead of peer review. Survivors' risk for re-infection may be rising more quickly than an average person's risk for a first infection, they said. The researchers said, the timing of the increase in re-infections "strongly suggests that they are driven by the emergence of the Omicron variant."
(With inputs from agencies)
