Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said that a total of 110 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Sunday in the country,
The health agency confirmed the figure in a Facebook post on Monday morning, amid the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant called Omicron in some countries and explained that the new cases were recorded in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with Lagos reporting 27 more infections.
Kastina had 23, Rivers confirmed 20, Ondo reported 11, Kaduna recorded nine, FCT confirmed six, Oyo reported six, and Plateau had three.
While Osun recorded two, the NCDC revealed that a new case was reported in Ekiti, Gombe, and Zamfara states respectively.
“23 confirmed cases reported for Katsina State is for 27th November 2021,” it stated. “Nine confirmed cases reported for Kaduna State is for 27th November 2021; three discharged cases reported for Kaduna State is for 27th November 2021.”
As Nigerians worry over the emergence of the Omicron variant, the Federal Government said it was monitoring the situation.
The variant, according to Adetifa, was first identified from testing done on November 9 in Botswana on travellers from West Africa.
It was reported to WHO on the identification of cases among a cluster of young unvaccinated people in South Africa on November 24.
However, the NCDC chief said the variant has not been detected in Nigeria so far, he noted that a number of cases have been reported in the United Kingdom, Israel, Botswana, Hong Kong, Germany, Belgium, and Italy and so on.
The NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, in a statement said;
“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).
“WHO has also urged countries to enhance their surveillance and virus sequencing efforts to increase their understanding of the circulating variants. 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.”