COVID 19 Omicron Variant Confirmed in Nigeria

• The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has confirmed the first case of COVID 19 Omicron variant in the country

• The NCDC disclosed on Wednesday morning that the B.1.1.529 lineage was found in a test sample

• Two cases of the variant were recorded among passengers who had recently been to South Africa

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed the country’s first cases of the COVID 19 Omicron variant in Nigeria.

The Director-General of the agency, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday morning.

He stated that the two cases of the variant were discovered through genome sequencing among two passengers returning from South Africa.

The NCDC boss revealed that the two patients were asymptomatic and that tracing had begun to find others that they had been in contact with.

A part of the statement reads:

“In line with the routine travel tests required of all international travelers 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,”

Dr. Adetifa also revealed that sequencing of previously collected samples among travelers to Nigeria also found the variant among samples collected in October.

The Omicron variant is a new strain of coronavirus that was reported by South Africa.

Read also: Moderna To Ready Omicron Vaccine in Early 2022

Since being discovered, the virus has been identified in more than 10 countries across various continents.

Global fears about the coronavirus pandemic have increased as raising fears after The World Health Organization (WHO) classified it as a variant for concern.

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