NCDC confirms 3 cases of omicron variant in Nigeria

<p><strong>The <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;OpenLife&period;ng">Nigeria Centre for Disease Control<&sol;a> on Wednesday has announced that Nigeria has now reported three cases of the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;OpenLife&period;ng">Omicron variant<&sol;a> of the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;OpenLife&period;ng">COVID-19 virus<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A statement signed by the Director-General&comma; Dr Ifedayo Adetifa&comma; partly reads&comma;<em><strong> &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control conducts case and genomic surveillance for inbound international travellers arriving in the country at its National Reference Laboratory&comma; Abuja and a network of other testing laboratories&period; 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&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This genomic surveillance has now identified and confirmed Nigeria’s first cases of the B&period;1&period;1&period;529 SARS-CoV-2 lineage&comma; now known as the Omicron variant&period; 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&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These cases were recent arrivals in the country in the past week&period; Follow up to ensure isolation&comma; linkage to clinical care&comma; contact tracing and other relevant response activities have commenced&period; Arrangements are also being made to notify the country where travel originated according to the provisions of the International Health Regulations&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The NCDC assumes Omicron is widespread globally given the increasing number of countries reporting this variant&period; Therefore&comma; it is a matter of when&comma; not if&comma; we will identify more cases&period; We continue to expand our sequencing capacity in-country at the NCDC-NRL&comma; through our network of public health laboratories and other partners&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h1><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;endsars-lagos-releases-white-paper-on-lekki-panel-report&sol;"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;ff0000&semi;">Lagos Releases White Paper On Lekki Panel Report<&sol;span><&sol;a><&sol;h1>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our focus is to complete sequencing of recently accrued samples of SARS-COV-2 positive travelers from all countries&comma; especially those from countries that have reported the Omicron variant&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;