Omicron hits Saudi Arabia, marks first case in Arab world

Earlier today, Saudi Arabia officially confirmed the discovery of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, TopNaija reports.

The announcement is the first to be reported in the Arab world.

The case was detected in a Saudi man who returned from a North African nation.

State news agency, SPA broke the news, citing a Health Ministry official, but did not name that country.

Saudi Arabia had banned flights to and from several African countries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised concerns about the new variant.

Omicron could evade the body’s immune response and make it more transmissible.

South Africa has accused countries of punishing its advanced ability which detected the new virus.

Scientists have been scrambling to learn more about the effects of the Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa last week.

It remains unclear where or when the variant first emerged. But nations have rushed to impose travel restrictions, especially on visitors coming from Southern Africa, despite the World Health Organization’s call for “rational” measures in response to the new strain.

Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is a country in Western Asia. It spans the vast majority of the Arabian Peninsula, with a land area of approximately 2,150,000 km². Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Middle East, and the second-largest country in the Arab world