Omicron has been detected in at least 21 countries, as governments around the world impose restrictions to limit the spread of the latest coronavirus variant.
Nigeria and Ireland joined the list today, while Hong Kong reported a fourth infection when a traveller from Qatar arrived.
“Further epidemiological investigations revealed that the patient travelled from Papua New Guinea to Nigeria on November 15 and subsequently travelled from Qatar to Hong Kong,” the Hong Kong government said.
Omicron has been identified in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, the French territory of Reunion, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
There have also been reports of the variant of coronavirus in Denmark, Mozambique, Norway, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Countries around the world have imposed restrictions on travel with Japan’s transport ministry requesting today that international airlines stop taking new reservations for all Japan-bound flights until the end of December.
Nigeria identified its initial Omicron cases “in three persons with history of travel to South Africa”, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said.
“The NCDC assumes Omicron is widespread globally given the increasing number of countries reporting this variant,” the NCDC added.
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