… Says no cases detected yet in Nigeria
By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has announced its proactive measures in monitoring the recent rising cases of the COVID-19 in hotspot countries like China, US, UK, South Africa and others.
Director General of the NCDC, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa disclosed this in a signed statement on the Update on COVID-19 Genomic Surveillance released on 4th January 2023.
NCDC stated, ” The NCDC-led COVID-19 Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) is monitoring COVID-19 trends in
China, the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa, India, and other
countries with a high volume of traffic to and from Nigeria.”
The agency said the surveillance was considering the recent resurgence of COVID-19 in China’s relaxation of zero—COVID-19 policy and attendant increased cases , admissions, and deaths in hotspot countries like UK and the US.
“The sub-lineage seen with cases in China, B.5.2.1 and BF.7 are responsible for the recent surge.”
This is caused by the rise in the new Omicron Sub – lineages XBB.1.5 in the UK and the US and BF. 7 variants in China.
The China BF. 7 is likely to spread faster than the older Omicron Sub- lineages the XBB or BQ responsible for current increased cases in hospitalizations and deaths.
Meanwhile NCDC noted that , the sub-lineages partly responsible for the current increase in COVID-19 cases in other countries, i.e., XBB.1.5 and BF.7 have not
yet been detected in the country but B.5.2.1 has been seen here since July 2022.
The disease control agency said it continues to strengthen genomic surveillance of the COVID-19 virus in Nigeria since the
detection of the Omicron variant in December 2021, adding that its sub-lineage (BQ.1/BQ.1.1) has been dominant in
Nigeria.
The NCDC advised Nigerians to get vaccinated against the
COVID-19The most important action for Nigerians to take is to get
vaccinated against COVID-19, as the vaccine is the most important intervention for preventing severe
disease, hospitalization, and death.
It further urged people who are at high risks for severe COVID-19 like the unvaccinated, older people, people
with co-morbidities and the immunocompromised to continue to adhere to the recommended non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPIs) such as the use of face masks, good hand and respiratory hygiene and
avoidance of crowded spaces.
