The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced that the first cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been recorded in the country.

NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, stated this in a press statement issued today

The health agency said the three cases of the variant were discovered through genomic sequencing, linking the cases to three passengers from South Africa.

“This genomic surveillance has now identified and confirmed Nigeria’s first cases of the B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, now known as the Omicron variant,” the statement read.

“Samples obtained for the stipulated day two test for all travellers to Nigeria were positive for this variant in three persons with a history of travel to South Africa.

“These cases were recent arrivals in the country in the past week. Follow up to ensure isolation, linkage to clinical care, contact tracing and other relevant response activities have commenced. Arrangements are also being made to notify country where travel originated according to the provisions of the International Health Regulations.”

Omicron variant, a new strain of the coronavirus disease, was reported by South Africa and first detected in Botswana.

The discovery forced countries such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Israel among others placed travel bans on southern African countries.

Also, Canada had announced that it discovered two cases of the variant from two passengers from Nigeria.

“The NCDC assumes Omicron is widespread globally given the increasing number of countries reporting this variant. Therefore, it is a matter of when, not if, we will identify more cases. We continue to expand our sequencing capacity in-country at the NCDC-NRL, through our network of public health laboratories and other partners.

“Our focus is to complete sequencing of recently accrued samples of SARS-COV-2 positive travellers from all countries, especially those from countries that have reported the Omicron variant.”

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