Kathmandu, Dec 6 (IANS): Two people have been confirmed to be infected with the Omicron Covid-19 variant in Nepal, making it the first reported cases of the new strain, the Ministry of Health and Population announced on Monday.

According to the Ministry, the two infected individuals are a Nepali (71) and a foreigner (66) and they are been fully vaccinated against Covid.

Upon his arrival the the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, the foreign national had produced a recent negative PCR report.

The Nepali national had come into contact with the foreigner after which they both eventually started showing symptoms and got tested, leading to a positive diagnosis, said the Ministry.

During testing, the S-gene target was a failure following which a gene sequencing was done and the Omicron variant was detected during the test.

As many as 66 samples of the individuals that had come in contact with the two infected were tested, the results for which came negative.

All the samples were tested in National Public Health Laboratory in Teku.

The World Health Organization has dubbed Omicron as a "variant of concerns and several studies are underway to understand its nature.