Two Nigerians who arrived in Canada on Sunday have been confirmed to have Omicron, US and Canada are yet to ban Nigeria after the discovery
By Kehinde Okeowo
Two Nigerians were diagnosed with the Omicron variant of Covid -19 upon their arrival in Ottawa, Canada, the Canadian authority revealed.
The Nigerian government is yet to announce the detection of this variant of Covid-19 despite the latest development.
Biden’s travel ban on eight African countries came into effect on Monday, as the variant was detected in Canada, Nigeria however, escaped the ban.
The eight African countries banned are South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi.
ALSO READ: WHO says how transmissible or deadly Omicron is unknown
According to Dailymail. com, Joe Biden on Sunday evening held an emergency meeting in the Oval Office with his COVID advisory team, where Anthony Fauci told the president, it would take two weeks until more data was obtained, but added that they are hopeful the vaccines would be effective against Omicron
Canada also introduced its travel ban on Friday, which went into effect immediately – but even though two Nigerians were diagnosed with Omicron in the country, the West African nation escaped a ban.
The White House on Sunday called on people to get their booster shots as a matter of urgency, as the new variant Omicron was confirmed to have arrived in North America.
Meanwhile, The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is yet to determine whether the new COVID-19, variant, Omicron, is more transmissible or deadly when compared to other variants, including Delta.
The organization in a statement said:
“The number of people testing positive has risen in areas of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiologic studies are underway to understand if it is because of Omicron or other factors.
“Preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of a specific infection with Omicron.
“There’s currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants. Initially reported infections were among university studies-younger individuals who tend to have more mild disease-but understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks”