Ukraine has detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said on Saturday.
The infected person recently returned to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates, Lyashko said on Facebook.
So far Ukraine has reported 3.6 million cases of COVID-19 and 92,929 deaths.
Earlier, the World Health Organization said preliminary evidence indicates that COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective against infection and transmission linked to the Omicron coronavirus variant, which also carries a higher risk of reinfection.
It said that more data was needed to better understand the extent to which Omicron may evade immunity derived from either vaccines or previous infection, Reuters reported.
"As a result of this, the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high," it said.
For the first time since the dominant Delta variant was classified as a variant of concern in April, the percentage of Delta sequences registered on the GISAID global science database has declined this week compared with other variants of concern, it said.
This needs to be interpreted with caution as countries may perform targeted sequencing for Omicron and therefore upload fewer sequences on all other variants, including Delta, it said.
