By Susitha Fernando

Colombo, Dec 3 (IANS): Sri Lanka health officials announced on Friday that the first Covid-19 infected carrying 'Omicron' variant was identified in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Hemantha Herath, Deputy Director of Health Services, said the infected was a Sri Lankan national who had returned from South Africa recently.

Herath said that necessary measures have been taken to detect more patients with the newly infected variant and the health officials were taking necessary preventive measures.

"As a result of our vigilance, we have been able to identify an Omicron patient following gene sequencing lab tests. There is no need get panic over this. We are dealing with the situation," he added.

The infected who were identified with the gene sequencing had arrived in Sri Lanka a few days ago.

Following the announcement of discovery of highly transmittable Covid-19 variant from South Africa Sri Lanka banned travellors from six Afrcian countries entering the country from Saturday (November 27) midnight. The six countries were South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

Taking stricter measures the health officials also had directed the travellers to undergo mandatory quarantine even if they had tested negative from PCR or antigen tests.