MADRID (Reuters) – Regional authorities in Madrid said on Thursday they had detected Spain’s first domestic case of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in a vaccinated person without links to risk countries, and were investigating two other similar suspected cases.
It was the fourth confirmed case of the variant in Spain, but the first proving that Omicron is already circulating in the country.
On Wednesday, the northeastern region of Catalonia said it had detected potential traces of the Omicron coronavirus variant in sewage samples from late November.
The person affected in Madrid had received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and had no history of travel or close contact with another person from countries where this variant has been detected, authorities said.
The 62-year-old man, who has shown mild symptoms since Nov. 29, is isolating at home, while his closest contacts are under quarantine, authorities said. The two other cases being investigated also presented only mild symptoms, and had no history of travels to risk countries.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Editing by Andrei Khalip and Alison Williams)
