The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed two cases of Omicron Covid-19 variant in the country, the first to be found.
NCDC on Wednesday in a statement by the Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa said the cases were discovered through genomic sequencing.
The statement reads in part, “In line with the routine travel tests required of all international travellers and genomic sequencing at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control through its National Reference Laboratory, Abuja, confirms Nigeria’s first case of the Omicron variant.
“Genomic sequencing of positive cases from routine day two testing for travellers to Nigeria identified two cases of Omicron variant among travellers from South Africa who arrived in Nigeria last week.
“Retrospective sequencing of previously confirmed cases among travelers to Nigeria also identified the omicron variant among samples collected in October 2021”.
After the discovery, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Israel among others placed travel bans on southern African countries.
Canada also said that it detected two cases of the Omicron cases from Nigerian passengers.
The Federal Government through the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 had said that it was investigating the issue to get more details.
