The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed three more cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant in Nigeria.

In a statement on Tuesday, the agency stated that the fresh Omicron cases were detected in persons with recent travel history to South Africa.

“The NCDC through the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) continues to coordinate genomic surveillance activities across the country to sequence all positive COVID-19 samples from international travellers arriving in Nigeria. This includes sequencing of positive samples from international travellers from October 2021 to date.

“The Delta variant remains the dominant variant and so far, we have not seen the replacement of this variant by the new Omicron variant as observed elsewhere. The Omicron variant is a source of global concern because of its increased risk of transmissibility and its potential to escape protective immune responses induced by natural infection and/or vaccination.