ABUJA, December 1, Reuters - Nigeria confirmed its first cases of the Omicron COVID 19 variant among two travellers who arrived from South Africa last week, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control NCDC said on Wednesday.
The NCDC said retrospective sequencing of previously confirmed cases among travellers to Nigeria had identified the variant among a sample collected in October. It didn't give any details.
The NCDC said in a statement that there is a need to put in place measures to curb community transmission due to the highly likely increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant.
The issue of the Omicron variant is likely to be discussed on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting between South African President Cyril Rampahosa and his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Ramaphosa says travel restrictions on countries in southern Africa are unjustified, and hurts developing nations because of the variant reported in the first place.