The Federal Government has said that no case of the highly infectious Omicron variant of the COVID-19 has been recorded in Nigeria.
This comes after Canadian authorities claim that two passengers from Nigeria had tested positive after arriving the country.
Speaking at the Presidential Steering Committee briefing in Abuja, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Ifedayo Adetifa, said there was no need to give in to speculations.
“I do not encourage citizens to waste energy on speculating. I think what we need to do is to focus on what we actually know. And what we know, for now, is that we do not have a case in Nigeria at the moment.
Now, we have a pipeline of samples that are in process, whose results will be ready tomorrow; so this situation, of course, can change.”
Also commenting, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said authorities were “adopting a watchful, waiting posture.”
The Omicron variant, first detected in South Africa, is believed to be highly transmissible, but it is not yet clear how deadly it is to public health.
The World Health Organization has listed Omicron as a “variant of concern” and countries around the world are now restricting travel from southern Africa, where the new strain was first detected, and taking other new precautions.