Omicron variant: 13 cases identified in Portuguese football team

Thirteen cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant have been identified among team members of a professional football club, Portuguese health authorities.

The Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute said that one of those who tested positive is a player from the Lisbon-based Belenenses club who had recently travelled to South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first identified.

The others, however, had not travelled to South Africa, indicating that this may be one of the very first cases of local transmission of the virus outside of southern Africa.

Those who have been in contact with the positive cases have been ordered to isolate, regardless of their vaccination status or their exposure to possible contagion, and will be regularly tested for Covid-19, the institute said.

Portugal also found two positive coronavirus cases when it screened 218 passengers who arrived in a flight to Lisbon from the capital of Mozambique on Saturday.

One of the cases was the Delta variant and the other one could not be established, authorities said.