Prognosis
Brazil Finds Omicron Strain in First Latin America Cases
A streetseller sells facemasks his stand at the Rio Branco Avenue in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
Photographer: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Brazil detected two cases of the omicron variant in preliminary testing, the first cases of the new strain confirmed in Latin America.
The variant was spotted in samples from a traveler who had recently arrived from South Africa and his wife, health watchdog Anvisa said in a note on Tuesday. The tests will be repeated for further confirmation, it said, giving no further information about the patients.