Connect with us

Headline

BREAKING: Nigeria Records First Cases Of Omicron COVID-19 Variant

Published

on

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Wednesday 1st December confirmed the first case of the Omicron variant in the country.

Onyxnewsng understands that this was contained in a press release issued by the centre and signed by the Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa.

READ ALSO: Governor Sanwo-Olu Invites Youths For Rally (Full Speech)

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

Advertisement

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

Similarly, the government of Canada had also stated that it discovered two cases of the variant from two passengers from Nigeria, the Federal Government through the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 had, however, said that it was investigating the issue to get more details.

Although, the NCDC on Wednesday morning said two cases of the variant were discovered through genomic sequencing. It albeit linked the cases to two passengers from South Africa.

Advertisement

The statement reads in part, “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 travelers to Nigeria also identified the omicron variant among samples collected in October 2021”.

Advertisement

The NCDC however added that the two patients were asymptomatic and contact tracing had started.

Facebook Comments

Pages

Facebook

Advertisement

Today’s Update

December 2021
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Trending

Copyright © 2023 Onyxnews Nigeria