Canada said on Sunday it has detected its first cases of the new Omicron strain of Covid in two people who had travelled recently to Nigeria.
The government of Ontario confirmed that the two cases are in the capital, Ottawa.
Federal and Ontario provincial officials said both patients are in isolation while public health authorities trace their possible contacts.
“I was informed today by the Public Health Agency of Canada that testing and monitoring of COVID-19 cases has confirmed two cases of the Omicron variant of concern in Ontario,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a statement.
“As the monitoring and testing continues, it is expected that other cases of this variant will be found in Canada,” he was quoted as saying by France24.com.
But Federal Government had claimed that the new COVID-19 variant was not in Nigeria yet.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, said in a statement on Sunday that the centre is prioritising sequencing of recently accrued samples from SARS-COV-2 positive travellers from all countries, especially those from countries that have reported the Omicron variant already.
It was earlier reported that virologists have faulted the decision of the Federal Government not to test the South African delegates on their arrival in the country on Monday despite the newly discovered strain of the coronavirus in Southern Africa.
The World Health Organisation 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.
The WHO says it could take several weeks to know if there are significant changes in transmissibility, severity or implications for Covid vaccines, tests and treatments.
On Friday, Canada banned travel from seven African countries over concerns about the spread of the Omicron strain. Nigeria was not one of them.
The United States top infectious disease official, Dr Anthony Fauci told President Joe Biden on Sunday it will take about two weeks to have definitive information on the Omicron variant.
Biden, returning to Washington following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, was briefed in person by his coronavirus response team on Sunday afternoon as officials expect the new variant to reach the United States despite an impending ban on travellers from Southern Africa, where it was first detected.
Fauci said he believes existing vaccines are likely to provide “a degree of protection against severe cases of COVID”, and officials reiterated their recommendation for vaccinated Americans to get booster shots, according to a readout of the briefing.
Earlier on Sunday, Fauci told ABC News’ “This Week” that the new variant would “inevitably” reach the United States.
“It clearly is giving indication that it has the capability of transmitting rapidly. That’s the thing that’s causing us now to be concerned,” he added on NBC.
