A hospital in Ho Chi Minh City has quashed a rumor that it had detected the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a patient.

Nguyen Thi Le Thu, marketing director of FV Hospital in District 7, affirmed that the information about an Omicron case detected at the infirmary is untrue.

The rumor that FV Hospital recorded the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a patient following a real-time RT-PCR test went viral on social on Sunday.

The patient resides in Ward 5, District 5 and had his samples collected earlier the same day, according to this rumor, which came along with a photo of a positive COVID-19 test certificate issued by the hospital.

Thu stressed that FV Hospital does not provide any positive COVID-19 test certificate for its patients.

If someone tests positive for the novel coronavirus, the hospital will keep the patient informed and report it to the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control.

FV Hospital does not have the biological products needed to detect the Omicron variant, Thu added.

Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, deputy director of the municipal Department of Health, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that genome sequencing must be done to determine a variant of the coronavirus.

To prevent the penetration of the Omicron variant, health authorities have tasked the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, in coordination with the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, with conducting genome sequencing on all imported COVID-19 cases in the city.

First reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by South Africa on September 24, the Omicron mutant, a.k.a. the B.1.1.529 variant, was designated by WHO as a variant of concern two days later.

The variant has now been reported by over 100 countries, with health experts stating it appears to be more contagious but less virulent than previous strains.

Vietnam has yet to detect any Omicron case.

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