Madrid, November 29 (BNA) A major public hospital in Madrid said it had detected the first confirmed case of the omicron variant in Spain for a traveler who had arrived from South Africa.
In a tweet Monday, the Gregorio Marañone Hospital’s Microbiology and Infectious Diseases service said sequencing of samples from the patient earlier in the day showed the infection was consistent with Omicron.
The hospital said the patient is doing well, the Associated Press reported today.
In a statement, health authorities in the Madrid region identified the patient as a 51-year-old man who had returned from South Africa on November 28 after a stopover in Amsterdam.
The statement said that he first tested positive for coronavirus in a screening with antigen tests at Madrid airport, adding that the authorities are monitoring other passengers who had close contact with him on the plane from the Netherlands.
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