In Prague on Wednesday evening, laboratories confirmed two cases of the coronavirus variant omicron. A total of three cases were laboratory tested in the capital. Both new ones are from abroad, from the United Kingdom and Senegal. This was stated on their website by Prague hygienists.

The Prague Hygiene Station wrote that as of Thursday, they had been laboratory-tested in the capital three cases of infection with a new variant of the coronavirus omicron.

“The last two cases were verified by the National Reference Laboratory for Influenza and Non-Influenza Respiratory Viral Diseases at the State Institute of Public Health yesterday (Wednesday) in the evening. Both cases are imports from abroad – Great Britain AND Senegal, “ hygienists wrote. A third case was reported by hygienists about two weeks ago.

The number of cases is increasing

The first confirmed case of omicron infection in the Czech Republic was at the end of November, a woman from Liberec who returned from Africa. The second confirmed case was a man with close contact with this woman. About forty samples with omicron were discovered by experts in the South Moravian Region.

The omicron variant, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked among because of its potentially higher infectivity disturbing types of coronavirus, first recorded on November 9 in South Africa. According to experts, it is omicron three to four times more contagious than the hitherto dominant delta variant. Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09) expects that omicron will be dominant in the Czech population in the middle of January.