13 Belenenses players contract Omicron variant; 44 quarantine 

Thirteen players at Portuguese club Belenenses have tested positive for the newly discovered COVID variant ‘Omicron’, upon return from national team duty in South Africa.

As many as 44 players and staff at Belenenses are now quarantining while Benfica has not taken the same steps due to what it calls low-risk for getting the virus from their opponents.

It has now been confirmed all 13 players have the Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa last week.

The players, reportedly, wanted to cancel the game, but officials pressed forward with the contest. 

Meanwhile, Portugal’s health authorities are also sequencing the viruses from two passengers who tested positive for COVID after flying in from Maputo, Mozambique. 

Portugal’s health institute INSA, said in a statement that “there is still no scientific data to support [the Omicron variant’s] greater transmissibility or its ability to reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines.”

The World Health Organization (WHO), has declared the new strain a ‘variant of concern’.