The Covid-19 laboratory of the Lebanese University in Hadath Complex, which is in charge of examining the PCR samples that is conducted for arrivals, discovered that there are 60 confirmed cases of the new mutant “Omicron”, which were recorded among arrivals on flights to Rafic Hariri International Airport since the fourth of December. current.
In information revealed by “Al-Nahar” newspaper, the “Omicron” infected cases are for expatriates who came on flights from Africa, especially from Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Guinea and Ethiopia, in addition to infections registered with the mutant from Spain, Dubai and the United States.
Since the appearance of the mutant, researchers in the Covid-19 laboratory at the Lebanese University have been following it up, knowing that it was the first laboratory to announce the appearance of the “alpha” mutant in Lebanon, and to follow its spread in Lebanon.
On the fourth of this month, researchers in the laboratory of the Lebanese University found out that the first two “omicron” cases were almost confirmed in Lebanon through a special PCR technique developed in the laboratory, and it was later confirmed by decoding the complete genetic code SEQUENCING.
Since then, and the team of researchers has been working to follow up on positive cases through this developed technology. Researcher Fadi Abdel-Sater, points out that the team of researchers used a new technique to detect the “omicron” mutant by relying on 5 special mutations that we do not find together except in the “omicron” mutant. As a result of the daily follow-up, it was found that there are 60 confirmed “omicron” cases to date.