Brazil recorded the first death from the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. It is a 68-year-old man who had received three doses of the Covid-19 vaccines and resided in Aparecida de Goiania, in the central-western state of Goias.

The death occurred on December 27 and the presence of Omicron in the patient was "confirmed" after "genomic sequence analysis," said Erika Lopes, head of the Health Policy Assessment Department of Aparecida de Goiania.

The victim, it was specified, suffered from hypertension and pulmonary disorders.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, declared that the ascertained case "will not change" the strategy adopted by the federal government in the face of the pandemic. Last November, the first Omicron patients in Brazil were diagnosed, all from South Africa, but since December the variant has also started to spread locally.

Omicron appeared in 92% of 2,400 coronavirus patient samples collected between December 26, 2021 and January 1, 2022 in 400 municipalities in 25 of the 27 Brazilian states.

(Unioneonline / vl)