The Opposition has expressed concern that the update from the Health Ministry about confirmed presence of the Omicron BA.2 variant of the Coronavirus in Jamaica, is 6 weeks too late.

Today (April 21), the Health Ministry said eighty-nine samples were sequenced with sample dates from January 1 to March 4.

It said of those, 98.9 percent were omicron variants and 1.1 percent was Delta variant.

The ministry said of the Omicron samples, two of the 88 were the BA.2 variant.

Spokesman on Health Dr. Morais Guy lamented that the lateness, has put many people at a disadvantage, as they cannot adequately plan for how they will respond to the impact of this highly transmissible variant.

Dr. Guy wants the Health Ministry to provide data on Covid-19, in a more timely manner, as well as provide results of samples tested more recently.

The spokesman also called on the government to re-impose the Covid-19 restrictions, in light of confirmation of the presence of the Omicron BA.2 variant.