The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it is
monitoring emerging evidence on the Omicron COVID-19 variant and its
implication.
The index case of Omicron was detected in South Africa on
Tuesday and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had subsequently designated
Omicron as a “variant of concern”, calling on global leaders to take action to
contain its spread.
Speaking on Sunday in an interview with NAN, Ifedayo
Adetifa, NCDC director-general, said the federal ministry of health (FMOH) and
NCDC are aware of reports of a new COVID-19 variant.
“The FMOH and NCDC are monitoring emerging evidence on this
new variant and its implication, to inform Nigeria’s response to the COVID-19
pandemic,” he said.
“Given the high number
of mutations present in the Omicron variant and the exponential rise in
COVID-19 cases observed in South Africa, this virus is considered highly
transmissible and may also present an increased risk of reinfection compared to
other VOCs.”
He, however, said the fears about the variant’s ability to
evade protective immune responses and/or its being vaccine resistant are only
theoretical so far.
“This virus can still be detected with existing Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR) tests. The WHO and researchers across the world are
working at speed to gain understanding of the likely impact of this variant on
the severity of COVID-19 and on the potency of existing vaccines and
therapeutics,” he said.
Adetifa added that the agency will continue to ensure daily
review of surveillance data and use this to inform public health decision
making.
He said the NCDC, through the National Reference Laboratory
(NRL), will continue to coordinate genomic surveillance and other activities
required for the detection of variants.
“In collaboration with Port Health Services of the FMOH,
enhanced surveillance is ongoing at the airports and points of entry, and to
ensure compliance with current travel guidance, especially for the day 2
COVID-19 PCR testing,” he added.
“Should there be any changes to travel guidance, this will
be communicated in due course.
“Considering the
highly likely increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant and its
emergence that is linked to unmitigated community transmission of the virus,
the NCDC urges Nigerians to ensure strict adherence to the proven public health
and social measures in place, which are enforceable by the Presidential
Steering Committee on COVID-19 (PSC-COVID-19), through the COVID-19 Health
Protection Regulations 2021.”
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