Three persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week, according to the country’s health ministry. Two of the three affected had recently traveled overseas, according to the report. The symptoms were minor in a lady who had not traveled overseas, according to the report.

The Omicron variant has already been found in 41 countries, up from 23 just two days earlier, and several countries have taken steps to prevent the variant from spreading further.

After Brazil verified the first known cases of the Omicron coronavirus strain in Latin America’s largest country, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro postponed New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Eduardo Paes tweeted that he would follow the recommendations of Rio de Janeiro state to cancel the celebrations, despite the city’s view to the contrary.

“We respect science,” Paes tweeted, saying there are dissenting opinions between scientific committees in the city and the state, but he would rather stick with the most restrictive one. “The city’s committee said it can go ahead and the states say no. So it can’t take place. Let’s cancel the official New Year’s Eve celebration in Rio,” the tweet said.

In a related case, Russia’s federal statistics office reported that 74,893 individuals died from COVID-19 in October, the highest monthly figure in the pandemic, which comes as Russia faces a large spike in coronavirus infections and fatalities.

According to a study provided by Rosstat, over 537,000 people died as a result of virus-related causes between April 2020 and October 2021, over double the toll documented by Russia’s state coronavirus task force to date.

Russia has experienced the bloodiest and greatest spike of coronavirus cases in recent months, with officially reported infections and deaths frequently reaching all-time highs and only just dropping in the past couple of weeks.