The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has confirmed the first three cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Nigeria, revealing that they are linked to passengers from South Africa.
Hours after the statement was issued, President Muhammadu Buhari received the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Ramaphosa arrived at the Villa at about 10 am on Wednesday and was received by Buhari. He, thereafter, inspected a guard of honour and was treated to a 21-gun salute.
A statement signed by the Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, partly reads, “The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control conducts case and genomic surveillance for inbound international travellers arriving in the country at its National Reference Laboratory, Abuja and a network of other testing laboratories. Sequencing of samples from COVID-19 positive inbound travellers is currently conducted in laboratories with sequencing capacity in the country and all the sequencing data are shared in publicly accessible databases.
“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 travellers 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 the country where travel originated according to the provisions of the International Health Regulations.
“The NCDC assumes Omicron is widespread globally given the increasing number of countries reporting this variant. Therefore, it is a matter of when, not if, we will identify more cases. We continue to expand our sequencing capacity in-country at the NCDC-NRL, through our network of public health laboratories and other partners.
