Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr. Morais Guy is urging the government to restrict travel from countries that have cases of the new covid variant, called Omicron.

This, in the wake of reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Omicron to be a variant of concern.

The WHO said the variant has a large number of mutations, which affect transmissibility and vaccine effectiveness, adding that there is early evidence to suggest a possible increased risk of re-infection.

Cases of the new variant have already been identified in sections of Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Dr. Guy is also urging the health ministry to use the genome sequencing machine to check if Jamaica has any covid variant that would be of concern to the WHO.