EXAMINATION OF THE OMICRON VARIANT OF COVID-19 IN NIGERIA

EXAMINATION OF THE OMICRON VARIANT OF COVID-19 IN NIGERIA

EXCERPT FROM THE STUDY

As the world grapple with the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant, researchers have equally expressed serious concern about the impact of this new strain. Scientists working at the South African National Institute for Communicable Disease confirmed this new B.1.1.529 variant of SARS-CoV-2 to the World Health Organization, which WHO later named OMICRON and subsequently declared VARIANT OF CONCERN[7]. Omicron presents unique features such as a longer incubation period, multiple mutations at spike proteins this necessitates the need for urgent and critical action to bolster the existing non-pharmaceutical covid measures already in place. Scientists across the globe express worries regarding transmissibility, virulence and evasion of vaccine-induced immunity[3]. World Health Organization has further stressed the need for more research to unravel the needed information on the variant.

A growing number of countries have reported confirmed cases of the Omicron variant as of 29/11/202, 14 countries have confirmed cases. The United Kingdom, which has the largest genomic sequencing and contact tracing capacity, now have nine cases. Though one of the first three index cases in the United Kingdom had previously travelled to Southern African countries, the remaining two have no travel history[8]. Quite a number of cases were reported in England from an individual with no travel history suggesting the strain is highly infectious[12]. The emergence of the Omicron variant overseas reminds us why we need to maintain a careful approach and keep public health measures in place to protect ourselves.

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