As the numbers of affected countries grow globally, the Omicron variant of the Covid 19 virus has been detected in Nigeria as NCDC confirmed two cases.
In a statement signed by the Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa and released on Wednesday morning, the agency confirmed the first two cases of the Omicron variant also known as B.1.1.529 lineage in the country.
The centre for disease control discovered the new variant among travellers from South Africa who arrived in Nigeria last week.
This was made known in a part of the statement that reads below:
“In line with the routine travel tests required of all international travellers and genomic sequencing at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control through its National Reference Laboratory, Abuja, confirms Nigeria’s first case of the Omicron variant.
“Genomic sequencing of positive cases from routine day two testing for travellers to Nigeria identified two cases of Omicron variant among travellers from South Africa who arrived in Nigeria last week.
“Retrospective sequencing of previously confirmed cases among travellers to Nigeria also identified the omicron variant among samples collected in October 2021.”
The two patients involved according to the NCDC, are asymptomatic (not displaying symptoms) and contact tracing to curtail the spread has begun.
This is coming after the World Health Organization on 26th of November 2021,
address the new Omnicron variant B.1.1.529, a variant of concern,on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE).
This was based on the evidence presented to the WHO advisory group that Omicron has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves and spreads.
Nigerians have been warned by the disease agency to avoid traveling to counties where cases have been reported including South Africa, Botswana, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
The Disease agency also said efforts are in full blast to strengthen surveillance in the country in the country.
This is coming after Canadian government imposed travel ban on Nigeria in order to curb the spread of Omicron variant.
