Omicron Variant: Nigeria, Saudi Arabia confirm first cases, as Canada bans Nigerian travellers

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed the first case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant in the country.

This is also Saudi Arabia became the first Gulf country to confirm the Omicron variant.

A press release issued by the NCDC, Wednesday, and signed by its Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, said two cases of the variant were discovered through genomic sequencing.

It, however, linked the cases to two passengers from South Africa, where the virus is already present.

Nigeria, had stalled on travel ban on southern African countries since the virus was detected I that region, even as many countries had rushed to put out travel advisory on countries in that region.

Instead, the Nigerian authorities assured, last Monday, they were ‘monitoring emerging evidence.’

The NCDC, had, last Monday, stated that it is monitoring emerging evidence on the new COVID-19 variant and its implication to better prepare the country’s response to the pandemic.

NCDC, while making this known, Monday via its official website, urged 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.

“The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) are aware of reports of a new COVID-19 variant – the B.1.1.529 lineage. This SARS-CoV-2 variant has now been designated a variant of concern (VOC) and named; Omicron by the  World Health Organisation (WHO) as advised by the independent Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE),” the NCDC explained.

The Omicron variant, a new strain of the Coronavirus disease, was reported by South Africa and first detected in Botswana.

Following the discovery, countries such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Israel among others placed travel bans on southern African countries.

This is even as the government of Canada had last Sunday  informed that arriving it discovered two cases of the variant from two passengers from Nigeria, but Federal Government through the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 had, however, said that it was investigating the issue to get more details.

“In line with the routine travel tests required of all international travellers and genomic sequencing at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control through its National Reference Laboratory, Abuja, confirms Nigeria’s first case of the Omicron variant.

“Genomic sequencing of positive cases from routine day two testing for travellers to Nigeria identified two cases of Omicron variant among travellers from South Africa who arrived in Nigeria last week.

“Retrospective sequencing of previously confirmed cases among travelers to Nigeria also identified the omicron variant among samples collected in October 2021,”an NCDC statement read.

The NCDC however added that the two patients were asymptomatic and contact tracing had begun.

Meanwhile, Canada on Tuesday banned travellers from Nigeria, Egypt, and Malawi over fears of the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, bringing to 10 the number of African countries targeted by Ottawa.

“Foreign nationals who have transited or stayed in these 10 countries cannot enter Canada if they have been in those countries in the last two weeks,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told a press conference.

The measure takes effect on Wednesday, the government said.

Any Canadians or permanent residents who have been in any of the 10 countries will need to quarantine on arrival and take a Covid test.

Duclos also said “in the coming days,” all air travelers arriving from outside Canada, apart from the United States, will now need to be tested for Covid-19 at their point of entry, and isolated until their test results are available.

Canada last Friday had banned entry to all travelers from seven southern African countries: Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

First reported to the World Health Organization less than a week ago after being detected in southern Africa earlier in November, the Omicron variant has appeared in well over a dozen countries, stoking global fears about a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than five million people and savaged economies worldwide.

Canada has reported a total of 1,791,902 coronavirus cases and 29,681 deaths.

Also, Saudi Arabia has recorded the Gulf’s first confirmed case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a citizen returning from North Africa, a health ministry official said Wednesday.

The strain, which was first announced by South Africa but has since been discovered to have been present earlier in Europe, has prompted governments around the globe to reimpose travel restrictions, despite warnings from the World Health Organization this could do more harm than good.

“One case of the Omicron variant has been detected in the kingdom — it was a citizen coming from a North African country,” the ministry official told the state SPA news agency.

“He has been put in isolation, as have his contacts, and the necessary health measures have been taken.”

Saudi Arabia last week halted flights from seven southern African countries, mirroring similar moves by other government, but travel links with North Africa have remained unaffected.

The kingdom had been lifting some of the remaining restrictions it imposed early in the pandemic, allowing worshippers at the Muslim holy places to resume praying shoulder to shoulder from October.

Since the pandemic started, Saudi Arabia has recorded 549,000 cases of Covid-19, 8,836 of them fatal.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, as more countries rushed to impose curbs and the first cases of the new Covid strain were detected in Latin America.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations.

However, WHO warned Tuesday that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good, just as Canada expanded its restrictions.

In a travel advisory, the WHO warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for the global response to be “calm, coordinated and coherent”, urging nations to “take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

The likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases on November 25.

The new variant — whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines — was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil — and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

It would be recalled that WHO has also urged countries to enhance their surveillance and virus sequencing efforts to increase their understanding of the circulating variants.

The variant was first identified from testing done on 9th November 2021 in Botswana on travellers from West Africa. It was reported to WHO on identification of cases among a cluster of young unvaccinated people in South Africa on 24 November 2021. 

“While this variant has so far NOT been detected in Nigeria, a number of cases have now been reported in the UK, Israel, Botswana, Hong-Kong, Germany, Belgium, Italy and counting. However, no deaths have been attributed to this new variant yet. A total of 126 genomes of this variant have been detected globally and published on GISAID, (GISAID is a global mechanism for sharing sequencing data)” NCDC added.

“Given the high number of mutations present in this 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. However, the fears about its 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,” added the agency.

In Nigeria, the NCDC stated that it would continue to ensure daily review of surveillance data and use this to inform public health decision making.

It urged all states to ensure that sample collection and testing are accessible, so that travellers, people with symptoms or who have been exposed to COVID-19 cases get tested promptly.

“The NCDC, through the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) continues to coordinate genomic surveillance and other activities required for the detection of variants. The NCDC assumes global spread of this variant has occurred and it 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.

“In collaboration with Port Health Services of the Federal Ministry of Health, 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. Should there be any changes to travel guidance, this will be communicated in due course”.

The NCDC, therefore, implored Nigerians to ; Make every use of the currently available opportunities to get vaccinated against COVID-19; Adhere to public health and social measures that have been proven to help prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection regardless of the circulating variant, including waring face masks especially in crowded settings, washing hands regularly, physical distancing i.e., keeping a distance of two metres from others where possible, ensuring good ventilation, avoid travel to countries where there is a surge in COVID-19 cases or reported cases of the Omicron variant, as well as, avoid all non-essential travel both local and international. If you must travel, please adhere to travel protocols instituted by the PSC-COVID-19 which are in place to prevent the risk of importation of the virus or its variants to Nigeria.

The NCDC noted that the virus is more likely to spread where people gather and do not adhere to the above listed measures and therefore appealed to business owners, religious leaders, and people in authority to take responsibility by ensuring people in their premises wear masks and adhere to physical distancing.

“We must do all we can to protect ourselves and our country” it stated.