The UK's secretary of state for health and social care announced on Saturday that two cases of the new Omicron coronaviruses variant have been found in the country.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid said in a statement that the two cases were linked and there was a connection with travel to southern Africa. "These individuals are isolated from their households while contact tracing is underway."
The UK government planned to perform genetic testing on all positive COVID-19 cases in the areas where the cases were discovered, according to Javid.
He said that they are taking decisive steps to protect public health.
He said that the UK has a "travel red list," meaning that anyone traveling from certain countries must get a test before they get to the UK. Several countries have introduced or modified travel restrictions after the discovery of the variant.
Sajid Javid posted on November 27, 2021.
The Omicron variant was discovered by genetic analysis in South Africa. Public health experts say that it contains signs of being more dangerous than other strains of the disease.
The variant was labeled a concern by the World Health Organization on Friday, though officials have stressed that little is known about the variant.
Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said at a briefing Thursday that they don't know much about this variant yet. The concern is that when you have so many changes in the variant, it can affect how the virus behaves.
The variant was first identified in South Africa. It has been found in several other countries, including Israel and the UK.
Dr. Anthony Facui, the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC News that the variant hadn't yet been detected in the US.
