Omicron starts to spread in Serbia: It's revealed which countries most of those infected came from

Illustration: Nikola Jovanovic; Photo: Shutterstock

A new strain of coronavirus - Omicron, which was registered five days ago in our country, has so far been confirmed in about ten people in Serbia, Professor Dr. Tanja Jovanovic from the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology of the Faculty of Medicine has told Telegraf.

Omicron was first discovered in Serbia on Thursday, December 23, in a family of four. By sequencing samples taken from passengers who arrived from high risk countries, the strain was "caught" by this team of experts.

Furthermore, as Professor Jovanovic told us, this strain was detected in individual cases.

"They all came from abroad, mostly from Great Britain and France. There aren't that many of them, there are about ten," Professor Dr. Jovanovic told Telegraf.rs.

According to her, those infectred generally have mild symptoms.

"It doesn't have to be that way, but, fortunately, patients mostly have a mild clinical picture," said Professor Dr. Jovanovic.

Last week, the Omicron strain was first confirmed in a family of four who returned from Botswana. They were in Africa on a tourist trip.

As Professor Dr. Aleksandra Knezevic from the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology said, the infected people tested negative while entering our country and were immediately placed in isolation, given that they came from a high-risk country.

"After a few days, the symptoms appeared. They were tested and diagnostic tests confirmed the coronavirus infection, and after that the samples arrived at our Institute in order to determine the variant," Knezevic stressed.

The symptoms first appeared in a woman, who was admitted to the Infectious Diseases Clinic, and her condition is stable.

Experts say that Omicron spreads five times faster than Delta, which is why it worries medical professionals.

A meeting of the Crisis HQ for combating the coronavirus epidemic in Serbia is scheduled for today, the first since the new strain was confirmed in our country.

The medical part of the HQ is in favor of making Covid passes mandatory around the clock, and the Ministry of Health is in favor of this measure lasting until the end of January. At the same time, the same part of the HQ is skeptical that any new measures will be introduced, or that the previous ones will be tightened.

(Telegraf.rs)