Peru has detected its first cases of coronavirus variant Omicron, a health ministry official said, as it spreads rapidly around the world causing concern about the potential impact on economies and the need for renewed lockdowns.

Minister of Health, Hernando Cevallos, told reporters that four cases of the variant had been detected in the South American nation, which has the world's worst per capita death toll since the pandemic struck early in 2020, Reuters reported.

“One is a traveller arriving from South Africa to our country, while three of them have been detected within Peru and we are taking the necessary measures to follow-up and carry out contact tracing,” he said.