At a time when anxiety mounts over Omicron variant of Covid -19 and the visit of President Cyril Ramaphosa of South African to Nigeria from today, Canada has said that the disease is already present in Nigeria. This is contained in a report published by theglobeandmail.com.

Right now Canada has confirmed the presence of Omicron in that country and the two cases are in Ottawa and “linked to recent travel from Nigeria.” This is according to a statement issued on Sunday by Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and Kieran Moore, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management, and the patients are in isolation, the statement said.

The Omicron variant, as the report put it, had arrived in Canada, “with two cases identified in Ontario just days after Ottawa and other governments imposed travel bans prohibiting entry by foreign nationals from several countries in southern Africa, where it apparently first emerged.”

The two cases are in Ottawa and linked to recent travel from Nigeria, according to a statement Sunday from Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and Kieran Moore, the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health. Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management, and the patients are in isolation, the statement said.

As containe in a report published in theglobeandmail.com, the Public Health Agency of Canada said genomic monitoring, as well as border surveillance, identified the cases. The agency said early data suggest the Omicron variant “may be more transmissible than earlier iterations of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.” The World Health Organization, the report has it further, has designated it a variant of concern, “as it contains dozens of mutations that scientists worry may allow it to evade vaccines, though evidence is limited at this time.”

Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos will, according to the report, meet with his G7 counterparts on Monday to discuss the new variant, his office said.

In Canada, one of the first to be affected by Omicron, according to the report, is the country’s junior women’s field hockey team that arrived in Potchefstroom, South Africa, last Monday to prepare for the Junior World Cup. The tournament, scheduled for Dec. 5-17, was cancelled due to the new COVID-19 variant Omicron and the team is now stranded because of travel bans.

There is a great apprehension in Nigeria where many “covidiots” do not observe Coroanavirus protocols. In buses, houses of worship, hotels, nightclubs, market places, people behave as if news about the pandemic that has been on a grand tour of the world does not concern them. If this attitude continues, death may be lurking at the corner.