NCDC – No need to panic, COVID-19 variants not in Nigeria

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has assured Nigerians, that there is no need to panic over new COVID-19 variants.

In a statement on Saturday, the agency said it is monitoring the new subvariants of the Omicron variant named EG.5 and BA.2.86.

The agency said the EG.5 variant is a descendant of XBB.1.9.2 which is itself a descendant of Omicron. NCDC said the variant has been reported in 51 countries including China, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal and Spain.

Symptoms of EG.5 are same with those seen with other COVID-19 variants, including fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle aches, headache, and sore throat.

Only one case of EG.5 has been seen in Africa, and it has not been identified in Nigeria.