Paris: French authorities said Thursday they have confirmed the first case of the Omicron Covid-19 variant in the mainland, a man in his 50s who recently returned from Nigeria.
The ARS health agency for the Paris region said the man had not been vaccinated against the virus and did not show the symptoms of Covid-19 when tested on November 25.
His wife, also not issued, was tested positive for Covid-19 and sequencing was underway to determine whether he also had an Omicron variant, and their families had been placed in quarantine, the agency said.
Previously, the only Omicron case confirmed in the French region was detected on the Island of the Indian Ocean in the reunion, although Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday that 13 suspected cases were being studied.
The country faces the fifth wave of cases soaring because the pandemic appeared last year, and three hospitals in Northeast France had implemented an emergency protocol because the bed filled rapidly with Covid-19 patients.
The Minister of Health Olivier Veran has warned that the average daily case tends to exceed the peak of the third wave that reaches last spring, maybe soon after this week.
Starting on Saturday, France will return to allow flights from South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first reported, but only allowed the population of French and EU to go down.
They must have a Covid-19 test on arrival, with negative results still need quarantine seven days, while a positive test will push the quarantine of 10 days.