Nigeria says found Omicron variant from October samples

FILE PHOTO: A medical health worker marks a sample testing kit during a community testing exercise, as authorities race to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Abuja, Nigeria April 16, 2020. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria said on Wednesday it had confirmed its first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, among them a sample from travellers who came to Nigeria in October, suggesting it had turned up weeks before it was reported in southern Africa.

"Retrospective sequencing of the previously confirmed cases among travellers to Nigeria also identified the Omicron variant among the sample collected in October 2021," Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said in a statement.