Portugal detects new case of Omicron variant

Lisbon, Dec 1 (IANS) Portugal registered a new case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, which has been linked with a football team where the country's first batch of infections with the new variant were detected.

The patient had contact with the personnel of the Belenenses SAD football club on Tuesday, which had already identified 13 infected people after an athlete returned from South Africa, according to Luis Amaro, President of the Board of Directors of Hospital, Garcia de Orta, in the metropolitan region of Lisbon.

The hospital also identified possible contacts of risk among health professionals who treated the infected, as well as exposed risk patients and caregivers, Xinhua news agency reported.

Portugal has registered 1,147,249 cases of infection and 18,441 deaths from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the Health Directorate.