Israel detects new COVID-19 strain: Ministry

AGENCY: MARCH. 16 – The Israeli Ministry of Health on Wednesday announced the detection of a new COVID-19 strain.

According to the ministry, this is a combined strain of the original Omicron lineage BA.1 and its subvariant BA.2, which was detected in two arriving passengers at Ben Gurion International Airport in recent days.

Both passengers had mild symptoms of fever, headaches, and muscle aches and did not require special medical attention, according to the report.

The ministry stated that it would continue to monitor the outcomes of the sequencing tests.

Meanwhile, the ministry reported 6,310 new COVID-19 cases in the past day, bringing the total tally of infections to 3,734,462.