Hanoi, Dec 28 (IANS): Vietnam has detected its first case of the Omicron Covid-19 variant in a quarantine facility in capital Hanoi, the Ministry of Health confirmed on Tuesday.

The patient arrived in Hanoi on December 19 from Britain and tested positive for Covid-19, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Ministry as saying.

He was immediately transferred to the quarantine centre in the capital while his sample was sent for genome sequencing test. The result achieved on December 21 confirmed that he had the Omicron variant, according to the Ministry.

Health authorities will continue to closely monitor the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in general and the infectivity of the Omicron variant in particular, the Ministry said, calling people to adhere to prevention and control measures and get fully vaccinated.

The government of the capital Hanoi on Monday mandated that everyone arriving in the city from the countries and regions, where the Omicron variant has been detected, should be put under quarantine regardless of their vaccination or recovery status.

Hanoi, currently the nation's coronavirus epicentre, has also instructed laboratories to conduct gene sequencing tests to detect the variant.

Vietnam has so far registered a total of 1,666,545 Covid-19 cases, with over 1.66 million cases detected in the current wave which was triggered by the contagious Delta variant since late April, according to the Ministry.

The country's death toll stood at 31,418.