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Ghana records cases of new COVID-19 Omicron variant

Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, director-general of the Ghana Health Service (GHS)

Ghana has confirmed two new cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.

The confirmation comes barely a week after the GHS said the country is yet to record the Omicron variant.

Speaking at the launch of the Vaccination Month in Accra , the director general of the Ghana Health Service, Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said the cases all came from Nigeria and South Africa.

“There is the emergence of the new variant and I must say, through the robust testing at the Kotoka International Airport, Ghana has detected the Omicron variant already.”

And the cases have come mainly from Nigeria and South Africa. The very first case that was detected during our sequencing was on the 21 November”, he told the media.

Nigeria detect cases

Meanwhile,t he Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it has detected the Omicron variant in travellers from South Africa who arrived in Nigeria last week.

In a press release, the body warns that it is a matter of “when, not if” more cases are identified.

The organisation says its research suggests that given the likely high transmissibility of the variant, it is imperative to introduce measures to curb community transmission like “increased COVID-19 testing”.

Earlier this week, the government of Canada said that it had discovered two cases of the variant from two passengers from Nigeria.

However, the Nigerian health authorities said that it was investigating the issue to get more details.

Canada has now added Nigeria to the list of countries where travellers are barred from entering into its territory, following the discovery.

Omicron has been rated by the World Health Organization as a “variant of concern”.

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