When Omicron started to spread to various countries, prompting concerns among scientists and public health officials across the world, the new coronavirus variant’s entry into Nepal was not a matter of if but when.

And on Monday, the Ministry of Health and Population confirmed two cases of this new iteration of the coronavirus in the country.

“Two persons, both foreign nationals, have tested positive for the Omicron variant,” Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, told the Post.

The ministry said the infected persons are aged 66 and 71.

The 66-year-old foreign national had arrived in Nepal via the Tribhuvan International Airport on November 19. The second infected person was in his close contact. No details were provided about their travel route or their last departure point before landing in Nepal.

The 66 year old foreign national had presented negative PCR reports at the airport health desk.

The World Health Organisation has called Omicron a “variant of concern”, warning that the global risks posed by it are “very high”.

The first known confirmed Omicron variant infection was reported from a specimen collected on November 9, according to the World Health Organisation.

That the new variant has been detected in Nepal in two foreign nationals also suggests that the new form of the coronavirus had made it to the country a week before the UN health agency designated it a variant of concern.

The World Health Organisation designated Omicron as a variant of concern on November 26.

On November 23, both foreign nationals underwent coronavirus tests after experiencing some symptoms, which showed positive results.

Then their swab samples were sent for whole-genome sequencing to the National Public Health Laboratory.

“On performing whole-genome sequencing of the swab samples of both suspects, we found S-gene target failure, which confirmed infection of the new variant of the virus,” Dr Runa Jha, director at the National Public Health Laboratory, told the Post.

The Health Ministry said that both the infected patients are recovering and have been placed in an isolation facility under the supervision of health workers.

The ministry said that contact tracing of 66 people, who came in close contact with the infected people, has been completed and the tests performed on them showed negative results for the coronavirus.

The new variant of the coronavirus has been detected in around 50 countries throughout the world, including Nepal’s neighbour India.

Public health experts in Nepal say they are not surprised by the detection of the new variant of the virus, as chances of Omicron entering Nepal were high ever since it started to spread across the world.

“We need to be clear about two things—viruses seen in any corner of the globe will eventually come to Nepal and the pandemic is not going to be over anytime soon,” Dr Keshab Deuba, a public health epidemiologist, told the Post. “It would have been rather surprising if the new variant had not come to Nepal. Due to global movements, we are at high risks of any disease seen in any part of the world.”

Even though around 50 countries throughout the world have reported the new variant of the virus, authorities in Nepal have restricted entry of passengers arriving or transiting from only nine countries—South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi and Hong Kong. A Cabinet meeting on Monday took a decision to this effect.

But people returning from other countries, which have recorded cases of the Omicron variant, have been freely entering Nepal, as there is no restriction in place to prevent them from travelling or quarantining them for a certain number of days.

Public health experts in Nepal say that the authorities concerned should start preparations for the worst case scenario.

“Authorities should strictly enforce public health measures—mask wearing and physical distancing—and control crowds,” Dr Biraj Karmacharya, an epidemiologist, who is also the chief of the Department of Community Programme at Dhulikhel Hospital, told the Post. “Along with this, authorities should increase the surveillance system and take decisions as per the risks.”

It is suspected that Omicron may be able to evade the existing vaccines. Both patients infected with the Omicron variant in Nepal are said to have been fully vaccinated.

Scientists have identified about 50 mutations in the genome of the Omicron variant that set it apart from other variants, far more than any previous variant, including more than 30 on the spike protein that the virus uses to blind to host cells, according to the New York Times.

Omicron’s entry into Nepal comes at a time when coronavirus cases were on the decline.

On Monday, 265 people tested positive for Covid-19—238 in 7,114 polymerase chain reaction tests and 27 in 1,503 antigen tests.

Two coronavirus related deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours.

The number of active cases stands at 6,386 throughout the country.

As of Monday, 8,725,785 people (28.7 percent of the total estimated population) have been fully vaccinated.

Nepal so far has received 25,049,840 doses of Covid-19 vaccines—Vero Cell, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Experts say Nepal must scale up its vaccination drive, as the country already has secured enough vaccine doses.

“As we don’t know much about the severity and death from the new virus variant, we should speed up our vaccination drive,” Dr Prabhat Adhikari, an infectious disease and critical care expert, told the Post. “Along with providing the first two doses of vaccine, authorities should also start booster doses to the frontline workers and the elderly people.”

Proper management of border points, setting up holding centres and quarantine facilities are also crucial to lessen the risks, doctors say.

However, construction of holding centres, which the government started setting up after the second wave of the pandemic, has not been completed yet.

“Instead of panicking, we need to prepare ourselves,” said Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of the Clinical Research Unit at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital. “All we can do is continue enforcing public health measures and the authorities should start preparing for the worst.”