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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC says it has confirmed the first case of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron in the country.
NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa stated this in a statement released to newsmen in Abuja.
According to the statement, “In line with the routine travel tests required of all international travellers, 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”
Omicron, a new variant of COVID-19 was reported by South Africa and first detected in Botswana, following the discovery, countries such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Canada among others have placed travel bans on Southern and Western African countries.
The NCDC in the statement however, added that the two patients were asymptomatic and contact tracing had begun.
