The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, said on Wednesday that the total number of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 confirmed in Nigeria is now three.
Making this known in a statement, the NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, explained that the agency had conducted case and genomic surveillance for inbound international travelers arriving in the country at its National Reference Laboratory, NRL, in Abuja, and a network of other testing laboratories.
He further explained that sequencing of samples from COVID-19 positive inbound travelers was conducted in laboratories with sequencing capacity in the country while all the sequencing data were shared in publicly accessible databases.
According to Adetifa, “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.
“Samples obtained for the stipulated day two test for all travelers 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.”
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