The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed two cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in Nigeria.
The agency announced this in a statement signed by by the Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa.
NCDC said the two cases of the variant were discovered through “genomic sequencing”.
“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.”
The development comes after Canada said it detected two cases of the variant from Nigerian travellers.
