The Canadian government has extended its travel ban on travellers who have recently visited Nigeria amid worries over the spread of the recently discovered Omicron variant of the Coronavirus.
This is coming two days after Canada announced that it detected its first cases of the new Omicron strain of Coronavirus in two people who had travelled recently to Nigeria.
Egypt and Malawi were also added to the list, making it a total of 10 countries in Africa that were handed a travel ban by Canada over concerns of the spread of the new variant.
Nigeria on Wednesday reported its first cases of the Omicron variant, also known as B.1.1.529 lineage.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced this in a statement signed by the Director-General, Ifedayo Adetifa, saying three cases of the variant were discovered through genomic sequencing.
They were discovered in travellers from South Africa, where the new strain had already started spreading.
While the disease centre noted that no death has, however, been reportedly linked to the new variant, it confirmed its high mutations and transmissibilities, noting that a total of 126 genomes of the variant has been identified so far.
Meanwhile, in an interview on Wednesday morning, the NCDC director, Mr Adetifa noted that the new variant is a matter of concern and not a cause of alarm as its fatality rate is still very low.
