Surgeon tests positive for omicron after UK conference

A LONDON medical conference attended by hundreds of the world’s leading cardiologists has sparked a health alert after a delegate contracted the omicron variant.

Organisers of the PCR London Valves conference have issued a warning to 1,200 delegates on its website – about a third of them British – after Dr Elad Maor from Israel tested positive for the new Covid-19 variant.

The 45-year-old, who was vaccinated with three shots of the Pfizer/biontech vaccine, told The Daily Telegraph he believed he contracted the variant during his trip to London for the three-day conference that ended on Nov 23.

It suggests omicron was circulating in the UK for several days before Britain officially detected its first case on Saturday. Any close contacts of Dr Moar are required to self-isolate for 10 days – even if fully vaccinated. That in turn raises the prospect of dozens of cardiologists being forced to stay at home if they prove to be close contacts.

Dr Maor said he arrived in London on Nov 19 and stayed in a hotel in Islington, north London, for four days before flying back to Israel.

He tested negative before boarding the flight home to Tel Aviv but began developing Covid-19 symptoms a few days later and it was found he had the omicron variant on Saturday.

By then, according to reports, he had performed several operations and had come into contact with another cardiologist, aged 69, who is also now infected with the variant.

Dr Maor said: “I was using the Tube and the Docklands Light Railway.

“I don’t know where exactly I got it, but I feel like if all were wearing masks then the risk of getting it would be smaller.”

PCR Online, a French company, which arranged the conference at the EXCEL centre in east London, said it had yet to be contacted by NHS Test and Trace about the positive result.