About 20 days after Nigeria recorded its index Omicron case of the coronavirus, the country now has 49 cases as of 20 December.
Mrs. Luka Lawal, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control Incident Manager, said this during a virtual media briefing on Friday.
She said Nigeria now ranks third on the list of African countries with the highest cases of Omicron after South Africa and Botswana with 1,296 and 291 cases, respectively.
As of Monday, a total of 13,758 sequences have been uploaded on GISAID, a global epidemic database, Lawal said.
Nigeria recorded its first Omicron case on 1 December, just days after the variant was detected in South Africa and the World Health Organisation designated Omicron a “variant of concern”.
Lawal explained that the index Omicron case was detected in travellers from South Africa to Nigeria but said new cases are from residents within Nigeria.
Despite the increasing Omicron cases recorded globally, Lawal said the Delta variant of the COVID-19 contributed more to the third wave of the pandemic in Nigeria – with 2,237 cases detected in Nigeria as of 20 December.
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“There are other variants but the Delta variant is the most contagious variant yet and may trigger serious illness compared to others,” she said.
As of Friday, Nigeria has recorded 231,413 COVID-19 cases and 2,991 deaths.
Amid the surge in Omicron cases globally, the World Health Organisation had made a passionte appeal to global citizens during the festive period- urging that travel, events and gatherings be minimised to help the world navigate around the Omicron surge.
The Nigerian government has also advised that indoor religious gatherings during the festive period be limited to 50 per cent with full compliance to public health measures.
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