COVID-19 Meeting: Ministries Meet For New Variant ‘Omicron’ Prevention

A coordination meeting on the new COVID variant ‘Omicron’ was held on Thursday at the Ministry of Health. There, Union minister for Health Dr. Thet Khine Win said that Department of Medical Research and Tatmadaw Medical Research Unit have been carrying out lab tests at the WHO accredited laboratories. So far, no Omicron virus has been found in the country.

The third wave of COVID-19 has been successfully controlled at present in Myanmar, with a daily detection rate of only 2 per cent. Since the WHO declared the Omicron variant, the Ministry of Health cooperated with respective ministries to ban visas for tourist arrivals from South African and Botswana.

He called on the respective departments to discuss challenges, weaknesses and needs that may arise in adapting existing policies to the nature of the disease. He also urged the participants to discuss the prevention of the disease from the people who arrive through airways and borders and for the cooperation in carrying out control activities if the virus is found in the country.

Also, directors-general from the respective ministries participated in the discussion. It’s learnt that policies, guidelines and changes relevant to the new variant will be made in a timely manner and respective departments will be notified in due course.

The new COVID variant ‘Omicron’ has been spread in 85 countries and has also been found in Southeast Asia and the neighbouring countries of Myanmar.