There is no evidence so far that a woman who tested positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19 after travelling to Egypt was infected there, a leading World Health Organisation official told The National.
On November 11, the woman flew from Egypt, which has no recorded cases of the Omicron variant, to Belgium where she later tested positive for the new coronavirus strain.
She experienced symptoms 11 days after she travelled back from the North African country, so “it’s unlikely that the patient was infected while in Egypt”, said Dr Abdinasir Abubakar, manager of the Infectious Hazard Preparedness unit for the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region.
Egypt’s Ministry of Health is currently investigating the case.
The new variant, which originated in South Africa, has caused countries across the globe to impose travel restrictions. Nineteen countries have reported cases so far.
No Omicron cases have yet been detected in any of the 22 countries and territories in the Eastern Mediterranean region, which stretches from Morocco to Pakistan, Dr Abubakar said.
Kazakhstan has suspended flights with Egypt, citing the Belgium case.
Switzerland had already imposed travel restrictions on Egypt, among other countries, on Saturday.
Media reports suggested the Czech Republic’s first suspected Omicron case had travelled to Egypt, but Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Twitter that this was false information. The woman spent time in Namibia and flew back to the Czech Republic via South Africa and Dubai, he said.
The Eastern Mediterranean region has reported more than 16.76 million Covid-19 cases and more than 309,000 deaths since the pandemic began.
The Gamma variant of concern has been detected in six countries in the region, Delta in 16, Beta in 18 and Alpha in 21, according to the WHO.
'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
Brief scores:
Manchester United 4
Young 13', Mata 28', Lukaku 42', Rashford 82'
Fulham 1
Kamara 67' (pen),
Red card: Anguissa (68')
Man of the match: Juan Mata (Man Utd)
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Power: 272hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
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Andor
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EPL's youngest
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15 years, 181 days old
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15 years, 271 days old
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16 years, 30 days old
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The%20specs
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Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 0
Liverpool 2 (Mane 50', 54')
Red card: Andreas Christensen (Chelsea)
Man of the match: Sadio Mane (Liverpool)
