The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, is closely monitoring the new subvariants of COVID-19 named EG.5 and BA.2.86.
Director General, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa disclosed that the EG.5 and BA.2.86 are subvariants of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and are yet to be found in Nigeria.
The EG.5 and XBB.1.9.2 variants of Omicron reported in 51 countries including China, the United States of America, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Spain and others as of 7th August 2023, Adetifa explained in a statement.
The NCDC team has been monitoring emerging variants from local to global level as its influenza sentinel surveillance sites continue to provide information on COVID-19 prevalence in patients with influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory illness, the statement noted.
“We have not observed any increase in trend of COVID-19 in this patient group. We continue to carry out genomics surveillance even with the low testing levels and encourage testing locations in States to ensure their positive samples are sent on to the NCDC for sequencing.
“Unrelated to the news of these emerging variants, the NCDC and partners are working on implementing an enhanced COVID-19 testing exercise in four states to obtain complementary and more detailed information about circulating variants in the country. In addition, COVID-19 rapid diagnostic kits are being distributed for the purpose of improving bi-directional COVID-19 testing”, the statement read in part.
The agency restated preventive actions as good hand hygiene, testing, vaccination and use of masks.
“There is no need to cause unnecessary anxiety and panic as COVID-19 is here to stay and is now mainly a problem for those at high risk – the elderly, those with underlying chronic illnesses especially hypertension, diabetes, those on cancer treatment, organ transplant recipients and those whose immune systems are suppressed for one reason or the other”, the Director General assured Nigerians.
The World Health Organisation has classified EG.5 as a “variant of interest” and conducted a risk assessment which found this new variant poses a low risk at the global level.
EG.5 causes symptoms like those seen with other COVID-19 variants, including fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle aches, headache, and sore throat.
So far, only one case of EG.5 has been seen in Africa, it has not been identified in Nigeria, the NCDC said, adding that although BA.2 has been previously found in Nigeria, no BA.2.86 variant has been identified in Nigeria.
