Canada confirms country’s first two cases of omicron COVID-19 variant among two people who had recently visited Nigeria
The first cases of the emerging Omicron variant have been identified in North America among recent travelers from Nigeria, the Canadian government announced Sunday.
"Two individuals in Ottawa tested positive for the COVID-19 Omicron variant with recent travel from Nigeria," the government of Ontario said in a statement.
Ottawa Public Health officials are conducting case and contact management, and the individuals are self-isolating.
The Canadian government advised those who have been in Nigeria, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Namibia within the past 14 days to seek testing and self-isolate immediately—even if fully vaccinated.
Political alarm spread quickly across the world after the World Health Organization (WHO) classified Omicron, which was first detected in Botswana, as a "variant of concern" on Friday.
Canada quickly joined a growing list of countries in imposing travel restrictions on flights from South Africa and neighboring countries, even as health experts and the WHO warned that it wasn't yet clear whether this latest variant posed a greater threat than other strains of the virus.
The Omicron variant has been identified in Israel, Hong Kong and several European nations, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy and Germany.
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