New variant worries the whole world, but there are no cases in Portugal, says António Costa | Coronavirus
Prime Minister António Costa acknowledged this Sunday that the Omicron variant of the new coronavirus worries “the whole world” and indicated that it has not yet been detected in Portugal. But if it is accepted “as staggered”. Omicron was recently detected in South Africa and, according to the World Health Organization, the “high number of mutations” may imply greater infectivity.
“It’s a concern for the whole world,” said the prime minister, who was speaking to journalists on arrival at the Teatro Nacional D.Maria II, in Lisbon. The prime minister also said that, although “in several European countries” the presence of this hitherto unknown variant has been “detected, until now in Portugal it has not been”. “But we are not an island in the world, hopefully not [se registem casos], but the work is being done to carry out this identification and, in that case, take the necessary measures”, emphasizes.
António Costa, who, in an attempt to contain this variant, “the European Union has adopted a set of measures to restrict travel to a number of countries” and, in Portugal, from next week onwards, “it will be mandatory testing in all flights from wherever you are”.
And he indicated that “at this moment” passengers on “all flights from southern Africa” are already being tested. “Just yesterday on one of the last flights that took place from Maputo to Lisbon, all passengers were tested, they are in quarantine, and the genomic sequencing of the viruses detected in recent weeks is being carried out in order to verify whether in some cases some of these variants”, he indicated.
The head of Government was also asked about the repatriation flights to Portuguese, having indicated that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is organizing, as it competes, the set of measures that are required to support our compatriots who, surprised by the appearance of this variant, are retained in different parts of the world”.
Recalling that “in the first wave” it was necessary to “repatriate all the Portuguese who were in Wuhan”, a Chinese city where the first cases of covid-19 were registered, António Costa said that this was a “very successful” operation, regretting that there was “the need to repeat it several times”.
The minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, apologized this Sunday and asked for a lot of patience for the inconvenience caused by the suspension of flights to and from Mozambique as of Monday, committing himself to carrying out repatriation flights.