By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, HAMILTON, Bermuda, Tues. Dec. 14, 2021: One country in the Caribbean region is seeing a spike in the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19, new data confirms.
At least 16 of Bermuda’s 35 active coronavirus cases are of the Omicron variant, up from just two last week, health officials there have confirmed.
The news came as 20 people tested positive among the latest batch of 6,762 test results announced on Monday night. The active cases are all being monitored by public health officials in Bermuda. No one is as yet hospitalized.
Health officials said 11 of the new cases came in from overseas. Eight of the remaining nine cases were classed as on-island transmissions and one was listed as under investigation.
Of the imported cases, 92 per cent were fully vaccinated people.
For on-island cases or those under investigation, 90 percent were found in fully vaccinated people – a reversal of earlier trends where most were found in unvaccinated people.
Variant typing was only available for 28 of the active cases, but Omicron now accounts for the majority of known cases. A further 12 people have been found to have the Delta variant. There have been nine recoveries since last Thursday.
In all, Bermuda has recorded a total of 5,784 cases of COVID-19 with 106 deaths.
Bermuda is on the Level 3 list of CDC countries listed as “COVID-19 high.” The CDC urged travelers there to make sure they are fully vaccinated before traveling.
The Caribbean region now has about 18 confirmed cases of Omicron.
