James Kon
Brunei Darussalam detected 10 new Omicron cases yesterday bringing the total confirmed cases of the variant to 19. There are no local transmission of Omicron and all the detected infections are from import cases.
The latest surge in Omicron cases was shared by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar during the press conference yesterday.
The minister said, “From November 22, 2021 to January 10, the gene sequencing method was performed on 460 samples from positive cases detected in the Sultanate where 441 of them were found to be of the Delta variant while 19 samples were confirmed as the Omicron variant.
“This means there are 10 additional Omicron cases in the country. So far, all the Omicron variant infections detected in the country are imported while the Delta variant cases comprised local and foreign cases.”
Brunei also recorded a surge in new COVID-19 cases yesterday with 44 new cases detected comprising a high of 30 import cases and 14 local cases. This brought the national tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 15,678.
The number of new cases, the minister explained “is the result of 1,428 laboratory tests conducted in the past 24 hours. Therefore, the rate of positive case is 3.1 per cent”.
Eight cases have recovered bringing the total number of recoveries in the Sultanate to 15,364 cases and the total active cases are 212. The bed occupancy rate at isolation centres nationwide is 5.2 per cent.
Among the cases receiving treatment at the National Isolation Centre, one case is in Category 4 requiring oxygen assistance and under close monitoring. There were no cases in Category 5.
On the latest vaccination rate, the minister said, “As of January 9, 94.6 per cent of the population have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine. The rate of those who have received two shots of the vaccine is 93.6 per cent and 28.2 per cent have got three jabs.”
