Health authotities confirm Omicron case in Dominican territory

Santo Domingo.– The Health Ministry confirmed Saturday the identification of the variant B.1.1.529 (Omicron) of SARS-CoV-2 as a result of an imported case (transmission outside the Dominican territory), from South Africa, who presented mild symptoms, for which the person received outpatient care, and subsequently progressed satisfactorily.

In this case, the appropriate measures were taken, according to the epidemiological surveillance procedures for COVID-19 in the country, said the Public Health statement.

After this case, the General Directorate of Epidemiology (Digepi) received the notification from the National Liaison Center for International Health Regulations of Chile, reporting the case of a person who traveled from the Dominican Republic to Chile, and who gave positive to the Omicron variant after a PCR test.

In its statement Public Health points out that: “Although the findings and preliminary data, both epidemiological, modeling, phylogenetic and clinical suggest that SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01 has higher transmissibility, the preliminary analyzes to date do not indicate changes in the severity of the disease (measured by the length of hospitalization and the fatality rate at 28 days), or the occurrence of reinfection among positive cases for this variant compared with cases by other lineages of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in different countries. Even without observing more seriousness in the cases, the increase in transmissibility is important, because it is associated with a transcendental impact on public health, due to the increase in cases in a limited period of time.”

In that sense, the Health authotities urged the entire population that, given these results, to maintain permanent monitoring of the circulation of the virus that causes COVID-19 in the Dominican territory.