Bermuda detects omicron variant

The latest COVID-19 variant Omicron has been reported in Bermuda where one imported case was recorded over the weekend.

The Ministry of Health in its COVID-19 update on Tuesday said of the country’s active cases where typing is available, 95 per cent are Delta and 5 per cent are Omicron.

Bermuda has 31 active cases of which 26 are imported, two are classified as local transmission and three are under investigation.

The ministry says genome sequencing was undertaken on the active cases, and while most of them are of the Delta variant, one case is the Omicron variant. The sequencing was done by MDL lab, and it indicated the presence of Omicron in one imported case that arrived over the weekend.

In terms of the vaccination status of the active cases:

Imported cases- 96 per cent are fully vaccinated, and 4 per cent are not vaccinated
Local/Under Investigation cases: 40 per cent are fully vaccinated, and 60 per cent are not vaccinated

Since March 2020, Bermuda has recorded 5,760 confirmed coronavirus cases, out of which 5,623 have recovered, and 106 are COVID related deaths.