TWO TRAVELLERS FROM NIGERIA TESTED POSITIVE TO THE NEW OMICRON COVID-19 VARIANT

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

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

Federal and Ontario provincial officials said both patients are in isolation while public health authorities trace their possible contacts.

“I was informed today by the Public Health Agency of Canada that testing and monitoring of COVID-19 cases has confirmed two cases of the Omicron variant of concern in Ontario,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement.

“As the monitoring and testing continues, it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada,” he was quoted as saying by France24.com.

But Federal Government had claimed that the new COVID-19 variant is not in Nigeria yet.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, said in a statement on Sunday that the centre is prioritising sequencing of recently accrued samples from SARS-COV-2 positive travellers from all countries, especially those from countries that have reported the Omicron variant already.

The virologists have faulted the decision of the Federal Government not to test the South African delegates on their arrival in the country on Monday (today) despite the newly discovered strain of the coronavirus in Southern Africa.

The World Health Organisation 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.