TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two staff members at Taiwan’s representative office in South Africa have most likely been infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, officials said Friday (Dec. 3).

Countries across the world have tightened border checks or restricted air travel as the new strain, believed to be highly infectious, has spread beyond its suspected place of origin in Southern Africa.

After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced Friday that two employees of its office in Pretoria had been infected with COVID-19, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) added there was a high likelihood the Omicron variant was involved, CNA reported.

For privacy reasons, MOFA was not willing to comment on the nature of its staff members’ infections. However, CECC official Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) remarked that over the past week, 100% of new cases recorded in the province of Gauteng, which includes Pretoria and Johannesburg, were infections with the Omicron variant.

While he emphasized he had not seen any data about the two individuals, he said the likelihood they had contracted the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was quite high.