Gaborone, Nov 29 (IANS): Botswana has so far confirmed a total of 19 cases of the newly-discovered Omicron variant of Covid-19, a health official said.

Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti said at a briefing on Sunday evening that additional assessments and analyses of other positive Covid samples had revealed 15 more cases of the Omicron variant on Sunday morning, after four foreigners were declared infected last week.

"We will continue to expand our conduct tracing to ensure that no potential cases go undetected," he said.

Dikoloti also said that the initial cases of the Omicron variant in the country were detected after four foreign nationals, who had briefly visited Botswana, tested positive for the virus on November 11 and the variant was confirmed as the Omicron variant on November 24, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Such detection should not be confused with Botswana being the country of origin of the strain," Dikoloti said.