Two cases of COVID-19 Omicron variant has been confirmed in Nigeria by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Tuesday in some parts of the country.
The Director-General of the agency, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa who made this known in a statement said that two cases were discovered through genomic sequencing.
Adetifa said the cases were detected in two passengers who came into the country from South Africa, adding the patients were asymptomatic and contact tracing had begun.
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 travellers to Nigeria also identified the omicron variant among samples collected in October 2021.”
