New Telegraph

NCDC: Nigeria records 45 cases of Omicron

… Says no death related variant yet

As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly across the African continent, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC), has revealed that the country has recorded 45 cases even as it said that no death related variant yet recorded. Director General of the NCDC, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, who made this known on Fri-day in Abuja, however noted that 49 cases of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in the country, adding that 13, 758 sequences had been uploaded Ob GISAID, a global epidemic database as at 20th December, 2021. According to him, the omicron variant has not only raised the number of confirmed cases in the country to 500 per cent, but was now the dominant variant in the country.

While noting that the country has further identified 39 cases of the omicron variant, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 45, the NCDC boss explained that 39 cases were people without travel history which suggests that the country was already experiencing a community transmission of the deadly variant Adetifa appealed to Nigerians to ensure they maintain physical distance and avoid contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness, reduce group sizes, increase physical distancing, reduce duration of contacts and close high-risk premises during the holidays. He said: “We are counting on you to celebrate responsibly and take responsibility to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from COVID-19.

“Indoor mixing was the biggest risk factor” for the spread of Omicron and those large gatherings risked creating “multiple spreading events.” Adetifa stressed that Nigerians should take the advisory issued by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, adding that it would greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and make it is less likely that these would prevent considerable pressure on health and care settings.

Meanwhile the Incident Manager, NCDC, Mrs. Luka Lawal, during a webinar by the agency yesterday disclosed that the country has recorded a total of 45 cases of COVID-19 Omicron variant of as of December 21, 2021. Against this background, this basically confirms the response of the NCDC to COVID-19 so far, she said. According to her, so far the eastern Mediterranean, western Pacific and Africa are currently experiencing another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding: “In Africa specifically we are experiencing the fourth wave.”

Speaking further on the NCDC response, Dr. Lawal said, “Paramount in our mind, in our heart and activities is that early detection and confirmation of cases have increased sequencing activities. “At our POEs, lab capacity built in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are presently also putting up testing sites for rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) and sample collection sites across the states.

“We have continued to train and re-train human resources in every aspect of this response in terms of infection prevention Control (IPC), case management, risk communication across laboratories across the country, heightened our surveillance activities at various points, and intensified genomic sequencing capacity at every point in this response.” According to Luca, the NCDC also consider maintenance of capacity to effectively manage cases by equipping and reactivating treatment centres in priority states especially states that have high burden of cases presently to ensure that treatment centres are available. Lawal said Nigeria ranks third in the list of African countries with the highest cases of Omicron after South Africa and Botswana with 1,296 and 291 cases respectively.

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