Insight Bureau:  A new and potentially more transmissible coronavirus variant ‘Omicron’, which was first identified in South Africa is more transmissible than other variants and now popped up in several other countries.

18 countries have so far reported confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Japan on Tuesday confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a man who had arrived in the country from Namibia.

Japan shut its borders to foreigners on Tuesday for at least a month, among the strictest measures in the world to halt entry of Omicron, recently declared as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization.

Earlier, on Monday, Spain and Sweden  announced that they have detected their first cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Confirmed cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus:

➡️ South Africa
➡️ Botswana
➡️ UK
➡️ Netherlands
➡️ Germany
➡️ Hong Kong
➡️ Italy
➡️ Belgium
➡️ Israel
➡️ Denmark
➡️ Austria
➡️ Czech Republic
➡️ Australia
➡️ Canada
➡️ Portugal
➡️ Spain
➡️ Sweden
➡️ Japan