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Cases Of Omicron Variant In Nigeria Jump To Three

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The cases of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic have jumped to three, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced.

Naija News reports that NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, made this known in a statement released on Wednesday.

Recall that the NCDC had earlier disclosed that two cases of the variant were discovered in the country through genomic sequencing.

The NCDC had said that the cases were linked to two Nigerians who arrived in the country from South Africa last week.

In another statement, the NCDC boss stated three cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 have now been discovered in the country.

The statement read in part: “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.

“Our focus is to complete sequencing of recently accrued samples of SARS-COV-2 positive travelers from all countries, especially those from countries that have reported the Omicron variant.”

Ige Olugbenga is a fine-grained journalist. He loves the smell of a good lead and has a penchant for finding out something nobody else knows.