The omicron variant advances in America 0:43
(CNN Spanish) -
Argentina detected its first case of the variant of the new coronavirus, omicron, the country's Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday.
Chile confirms first case of omicron variant
The patient is a 38-year-old resident of the Argentine province of San Luis who came from South Africa after attending a work event there, and returned to Argentina on November 30.
He was fully vaccinated and in March he had had covid-19.
He tested negative before his return trip to Argentina, where he arrived via the United States.
When he arrived at the Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires, he had an antigen test and it came back negative.
He has been in quarantine since his arrival.
Can omicron infect those who already had covid-19?
1:05
On Thursday, the traveler discovered that people he came into contact with at the job event in South Africa tested positive for COVID-19, according to Argentina's Ministry of Health.
He then did an antigen and PCR test, despite being asymptomatic, and tested positive for both.
The provincial authorities informed the national authorities and the patient's sample was sent to the National Reference Laboratory for genomic sequencing.
Four of the patient's close contacts are in quarantine and have no symptoms.
They came back negative through PCR tests, but will be tested again at the end of their quarantine period, according to the statement from the Ministry of Health.
omicron