James Kon
Brunei Darussalam detected one new Omicron case yesterday with the total number of the variant now standing at nine. All Omicron cases detected in the Sultanate are import cases.
Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Md Isham bin Haji Jaafar shared this during a press conference yesterday.
The minister also said the COVID-19 Steering Committee announced the amendment in the rate of the charges for the SARS-CoV-2 tests in Brunei Darussalam from January 1.
The rate of the charges for the SARS-CoV-2-Virus tests applies to anyone wishing to travel abroad or enter the country, regardless of citizenship.
He said to enter the country, BND100 is levied for the RT-PCR and ART swab tests upon arrival. Meanwhile for exiting the country, BND80 is levied for the RT-PCR and ART swab tests.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham said from November 22, 2021 to January 4, 2022, gene sequencing was performed on 350 samples from positive cases detected in Brunei Darussalam. Nine samples were found to be Omicron variant while 341 were Delta variant.
This meant that the total number of Omicron cases in the country has risen by one, said the minister.
“So far, all Omicron variant cases detected in the country are cases imported from abroad while the Delta variant comprised local and foreign cases,” he said.
Meanwhile, the country recorded 16 new COVID-19 cases comprising 15 local cases and one import case. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 15,532.
The minister said the cases were detected from 2,568 laboratory tests conducted in the past 24 hours, marking a rate of 0.6 per cent positive cases.
Twelve cases had recovered, bringing the total number of active cases to 100. Meanwhile, the bed occupancy rate in isolation centres nationwide is 2.4 per cent.
