Iraq reports first cases of COVID-19 Omicron variant

Baghdad (Iraq), January 7: The Iraqi Ministry of Health on Thursday reported the first cases of Omicron variant discovered in the country.The ministry announced in a statement that it discovered five cases of Omicron variant in Duhok province for passengers who had arrived earlier from outside Iraq, in addition to a number of cases for foreign diplomats in Baghdad.The Omicron cases were confirmed by genetic tracking tests conducted by the Central Public Health Laboratory in Baghdad, according to the ministry.In the meantime, the ministry recorded 665 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 2,095,848 across the country.A separate statement by the ministry also reported three deaths, bringing the death toll from the virus to 24,194, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 344 to 2,066,713.A total of 63,028 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of doses administered to 8,628,155, it said.Source: Xinhua