Thailand’s first Omicron case was detected in a foreigner on Friday who had travelled from Spain on November 30, the Public Health Ministry said on Monday.
At a press conference, the ministry said the patient was a US national who had taken a flight to Thailand from Spain.
The patient underwent the first Covid-19 test on November 30, but the second test on Friday traced the infection down to the Omicron variant.
Though the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has been detected in at least 38 other countries, nobody has died from it, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
However, WHO warned that the highly-infectious Omicron strain will affect the global economic recovery.
“The Omicron variant pushed the total number of Covid-19 infections in Africa above the 3 million level,” WHO said.
“It will take at least a week to identify how the Omicron variant spreads, if it can develop severe symptoms and the treatment efficacy plan in the long term.”
WHO also predicted that more than half of the Covid-19 patients in Europe will be infected with Omicron in the next two to three months.
