Brunei detects another 7 Omicron cases

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Borneo Bulletin/Asia News Network): Another seven new Omicron cases have been detected in the Sultanate following the first case found on Dec 22, Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Mohd Isham Jaafar (pic) said on Monday (Dec 27)

There are now eight cases of the highly transmissible Covid-19 variant, with all of them imported, said the minister during the daily press conference.

Dato Seri Setia Dr Mohd Isham said, “Since Nov 22, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has had the capability to perform gene sequencing on positive Covid-19 cases, which is a laboratory work to identify SARS-CoV-2 variants in the country.”

As of Monday, 252 samples had undergone gene sequencing, 244 of which were found to be the Delta variant.

“So far,” he said, “all the Omicron cases are imported from abroad, while the Delta ones are a mix of local and foreign cases.”

He also shared that it used to take two to three months to determine the variant type of positive cases as “we had to send our samples overseas for testing”.

However, he said, “since November, we have been able to carry out our own testing using gene sequencing, and it now takes only 10 to 14 days to obtain the result. As such, we have been testing all local and imported cases to determine which variant is the most widespread”.

The minister also called on the public not to panic over the latest number of Omicron cases as “preventive and control measures of any of the variants are the same”, he urged the public to “continue to take precautions, such as wearing face masks, ensuring regular hand washing, practising physical distancing and avoiding crowded places”.

He added, “What is the most important is for those who have completed the primary vaccination schedule to get the third dose or a booster as soon as they are eligible to do so. Scientific studies have found that a booster jab can increase immunity against Covid-19, including the Omicron variant.”