Algeria has decided to close its schools for ten days after it registered a rise in Omicron cases, an official statement said on Wednesday.
Algeria encouraged citizens to get vaccinated to counter the pandemic.
There have been over 227,000 confirmed cases and over 6,400 deaths in Algeria.
Since emerging in mid-November, Omicron has spread quickly around the world, as experts say it is more likely than delta to reinfect individuals who previously had Covid-19 and to cause “breakthrough infections” in vaccinated people while also infecting those unvaccinated.
The surge of Omicron has submerged Algerian hospitals suffering from a lack of staff and oxygen amid a total media blackout.
Algerian health authorities detected ita first case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant on December 14, 2020. The man, a foreign national, entered Algeria on December 10 and tested positive on his arrival at the International Airport of Algiers.
His sample, which was sent to the Institut Pasteur d’Alger, was confirmed as the Omicron variant of the COVID-19.