The new ‘Omicron’ variant of COVID-19 was first detected in four people who were fully vaccinated, according to a public statement by the Botswana government.

The new variant, which some claim is three times more contagious, was initially discovered in Botswana before it spread across South Africa.

The news was met with global alarm, prompting financial markets to plummet and new travel bans to be put in place.

According to a public statement by the Botswana government, the new mutation was first discovered in four people who had received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the report, four cases of the new variant “were reported and recorded” on November 22.

“The preliminary report revealed that all the four had been completely vaccinated for COVID-19,” according to Botswana authorities.

In a subsequent statement, the government revealed that the new variant “was detected on four foreign nationals who had entered Botswana on the 7th November 2021, on a diplomatic mission.”

“The quartet tested positive for COVID-19 on the 11th November 2021 as they were preparing to return,” according to the statement.

In a piece of good news, others who had close contact with the infectees “have no COVID-19 symptoms and have tested negative for COVID-19.”

As we highlighted earlier, according to Belgian Prime Minister , the Omicron variant is so potentially devastating that it should be called ‘COVID-21’.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s medical chief Dr. Angelique Coetzee described the panic as a “storm in a teacup,” adding that she had only seen “very very mild cases” of the variant so far.