The United States has received its first case of the worrying Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, Naija News reports.
The new variant was identified and confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified confirmed the case in California.
Speaking to newsmen at the White House, President Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci stated that the patient travelled from South Africa to San Francisco, California.
According to Fauci, the patient, though experiencing only “mild symptoms”, was fully vaccinated.
He said, “The individual was a traveller who returned from South Africa on November 22 and tested positive on November 29. The individual is self-quarantining and all close contacts have been contacted and all close contacts, thus far, have tested negative.
“The individual was fully vaccinated and experienced mild symptoms, which are improving at this point. So this is the first confirmed case of Covid-19 caused by the Omicron variant detected in the United States.”
Recall that the Nigeria Center for Disease and Control (NCDC) had also announced that two cases of Omicron variant had been detected in Nigeria.
In a statement released and signed by its Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, the NCDC said the two cases of the variant were discovered through genomic sequencing.
The centre added that the cases were linked to two passengers who entered Nigeria from South Africa last week.
This article was originally published on Naija News