Covid-19: Brazil’s Health Minister says caution with Omicron should be same as with other variants

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga said that the precautions the population must take with respect to the Omicron variant, which emerged in South Africa, are the same as with other coronavirus strains circulating worldwide.

The Ministry of Health’s Secretary of Surveillance Arnaldo Medeiros pointed out that in addition to vaccination, people need to continue to follow non-pharmacological measures as well as avoid traveling to places where the new strain is circulating in order to prevent infection.

Medeiros stressed that the country is prepared to tackle this new variant. The Ministry does not rule out the possibility of the new strain entering Brazil.

“It is extremely important that we keep the focus on the vaccination campaign and maintain non-pharmacological measures. Avoid crowds, hand hygiene, sanitizer gel, and respiratory etiquette,” he said.

During the live stream, Ministry officials also talked about the government’s measure to ban anyone who has been in 6 African countries in the last 14 days from entering Brazil: South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

According to the Ministry of Health’s Executive Secretary Rodrigo Cruz, this will delay the variant’s entry into Brazil. The decision was made on Friday, November 26, during an emergency meeting convened because of the new strain.

The measure was taken after a recommendation by the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA). On Saturday, November 27, the regulator recommended that 4 more southern African countries should join the list: Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.

“This was a measure adopted by Brazil as a precaution following the approach taken by some countries in the world. We restricted the entry of people who have been at least 14 days in those countries where this Omicron variant was identified. All with the aim of improving our surveillance and delaying the entry of this variant in Brazil until we have a better idea of its real impacts on all these issues,” he said.

ANVISA also proposed that the federal government require a vaccination certificate against Covid-19 for travelers to enter Brazil. However, the government did not debate this request over Friday’s meeting at the Planalto Palace.

According to sources at the meeting, the matter should be discussed this week, but they said that it is unlikely that the agency’s request will be granted. The request to establish the “vaccine passport” was proposed by ANVISA on November 12 to the Planalto Palace, but President Bolsonaro and his allies oppose the measure.

By Sunday morning, November 28, there were confirmed cases of the new variant in at least 8 European countries: the UK, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, and the Czech Republic.

The World Health Organization has classified the new strain as a “variant of concern” due to the potential risk of being more transmissible than previous strains. Even before this assessment, the variant’s large number of mutations triggered a wave of concern in several countries worldwide.

The Ministry of Health issued an alert to state Secretariats about the new variant. The Ministry’s document was directed to the CIEVS network (Center for Strategic Information on Health Surveillance), which comprises Brazil’s surveillance system.

The text instructs the networks to immediately notify the Ministry upon detection of suspected or confirmed cases.