LONDON, Nov 30 Reuters - The nine cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Scotland were all linked to the same private event, and none of the people who had tested positive for the variant required hospital treatment, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday.
The Scottish cases account for the majority of the 14 cases of Omicron reported in Britain, and Sturgeon said that none of the nine Scottish cases appeared to be associated with travel from Southern Africa.
The nine cases are linked. Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament that all of the private events trace back to a single private event on the 20th of November.
Over the coming days there will be more cases identified that are also linked to this event. The fact that all known cases are linked to this single event suggests that community transmission may still be limited. Sturgeon said that a review of PCR samples that could be Omicron had now looked back as far as November 1, but the timelines for the spread of the variant did not suggest a link to the COP 26 climate change conference in Glasgow.
There isn't so much information in the wider look back exercise that Public Health Scotland has undertaken to suggest that community transmission of the new variant is widespread or sustained, she said.