COVID-19: No death from Omicron variant yet in Nigeria, says NCDC

Director General of NCDC, Dr. Efedayo Aditifagave this information to journalists in Abuja on Friday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that data from the African Union (AU) shows that the Omicron version of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the African continent.

AU’s Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said as of Thursday that 22 countries have reported the presence of the Omicron variant.

“We can clearly see that Omicron is spreading very quickly,” said John Nekengasong of CDC.

About a month after South Africa first discovered the more infectious type, it has now been traced to Egypt, Togo, Morocco, Kenya, Mauritius and Burkina Faso.

Nkengsong said there are grounds for optimism, pointing to early findings from South Africa that Omicron presented an 80 percent lower risk of serious disease than the delta version.

However, he cautioned against applying these initial findings to other countries.

Across Africa, 253,000 new coronavirus infections were recorded last week, a 21 percent increase from the previous week.

Adetifa said Omicron has raised the number of confirmed cases in the country to 500 percent, and has now become the dominant form in the country.

The NCDC boss said the country has now identified 45 more cases of the Omron variant, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 51.

He added that the 45 additional Omicron variants were not cases of travel history, but were in the country, which suggests that the country is already experiencing a community transmission.

He said that six cases of omicron had been detected in individuals with a history of recent travel to South Africa.

Aditifa stressed that it is important for Nigerians to maintain physical distance and avoid contact with anyone showing signs of respiratory illness.

“We are counting on you #CelebrateResponsibility and #TakeResponsibility to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from COVID-19,” he urged.

He advised Nigerians that further measures to prevent the spread of omicrons were to reduce group size, increase physical distancing, reduce the duration of contacts, and close high-risk premises.

He had indoor mixing The “greatest risk factor” for the spread of Omicron, and that large gatherings run the risk of creating “multiple spreading events”.

Adetifa stressed that Nigerians should heed the advice issued by the President’s Steering Committee on COVID-19, saying it would greatly reduce the effectiveness of such interventions and that it is less likely that these health And will prevent considerable pressure on care settings.

Meanwhile, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), is insisting that the national booster campaign to stop the spread of omicrons remains the main tool in the nation’s arsenal.

The agency suggested that all COVID-19 vaccines in the country offer “significant protection” against the Omicron variant, and that two doses can still ward off severe disease.

It comes as the EU’s drugs watchdog said there were early indications that the Omicron variant may cause milder illness than previous strains.

The suggestion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) echoed similar findings from the World Health Organization (WHO), which said earlier this week that there was some evidence that Omicron causes less severe disease than the dominant delta strain. .

“Cases mostly appear to be mild, however, we need to gather further evidence to determine whether the spectrum of disease severity caused by Omicron is distinct from all the types that have been reported so far.”said Marco Cavallari, EMA’s head of biological health threats and vaccines strategy.

Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous post COVID-19: Nigeria yet to record any death from Omicron variant – NCDC
Next post No Omicron-related death in Nigeria yet, says NCDC