The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Tuesday, confirmed three more cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant in Nigeria.
The confirmation was contained in a statement on Tuesday by NCDC Director-General, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa
According to him, the fresh Omicron cases were detected in persons with recent travel history to South Africa.
Ifedayo, who was worried about the disease, further said, the Omicron variant is a source of global concern because of its increased risk of transmissibility and its potential to escape protective immune responses induced by natural infection and/or vaccination.
He added that the NCDC through the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) will continue to coordinate genomic surveillance activities across the country to sequence all positive COVID-19 samples from international travellers arriving in Nigeria.
“This includes; sequencing of positive samples from international travellers from October 2021 to date,” he further added
According to him, the Delta variant remained the dominant variant, even as they have not seen the replacement of the variant by the new Omicron variant as observed elsewhere.
He further added that, the NCDC would continue to coordinate and implement genomic surveillance activities in country to keep Nigerians reliably informed about existing variants, the Omicron and indeed other variants that may arise based on national data and emerging global evidence
“Taken together, and if true, the Omicron variant can significantly change the current global COVID-19 epidemiology. There is currently no evidence of generalised or community transmission of this variant in Nigeria,” he further added.
