November 30, 2021

With Canada on Sunday confirming existence of COVID-19 Omicron variant in Nigeria after two persons who travelled to Nigeria and returned to Canada tested positive to the variant, Nigerian authorities are now on red alert.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it was analysing outbound and inbound travelers from countries with confirmed cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19.

NCDC’s Director-General, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, said this at the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) briefing on COVID-19 on Monday in Abuja.

Adetifa noted that the agency would continue to sequence positive samples from the cases and ensure quick communication with the public.

“The NCDC will continue to work with the Federal Ministry of Health Ports of Entry team to ensure that inbound and outbound travellers are tested and compliant with protocol.

“Towards the Christmas period, please do avoid all non-essential travel and take the precautions, which will, indeed, save even just one life.

“Your life is important and so are our loved ones and strangers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Province’s Health Minister, Christian Dubé, on Monday confirmed first case of COVID-19 Omicron variant in Quebec, bringing the total to three in the country.

Dubé told reporters at a briefing that 115 travellers coming from countries impacted by the new variant, primarily South Africa, were called and asked to take a new PCR test for COVID-19.

Canada had on Sunday said it had detected its first cases of the new Omicron strain of COVID-19 in two people who travelled recently to Nigeria.

“Both patients are in isolation, while the public health authorities traced their possible contacts, said Federal and Ontario Provincial Officials.

The Government of Ontario confirmed that the two cases are in the capital, Ottawa.

“As the monitoring and testing continues, it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada,” said the country’s Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, on Sunday in a statement.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has listed Omicron as a “variant of concern” and countries around the world are now restricting travel from Southern Africa, where the new strain was first detected, and taking other new precautions.

WHO says it could take several weeks to know if there are significant changes in transmissibility, severity or implications for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments.

On Friday, Canada banned travel from seven African countries over concerns about the spread of the Omicron strain, but Nigeria was not one of them.

Authorities say Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with a history of high emigration to other nations, may be included in the list.