As concern is growing across Nigeria and around the world over the new strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, known as B.1.1.529, has been labelled the “Omicron variant” by the World Health Organization (WHO) and classified as a “variant of concern”. The variant first appeared in Europe about a week before anyone realized it.
Though since almost two weeks the new variant has been discovered, three confirmed cases of the variant have been reported in the country by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
In the aftermath of the recorded cases of the new variant, the United Kingdom on Saturday, December 3, 2021, added Nigeria to the red travel list. With this ban, only UK citizens and residents will be able to enter the country from Nigeria, and they will have to pay to stay in a quarantine hotel for 10 days.
However, Mr David Olusegun Odunmbaku, the Executive Chairman of Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), on Sunday encouraged residents of the council area, Lagosians and Nigerians at large to take advantage of ongoing mass vaccination in the country.
Odunmbaku in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Jumu’ah Abiodun, called for calm over Omicron variant, nonetheless pleaded to Ojodu residents to be cautious and always follow government protocols on COVID-19.
“There’s no cause for alarm, all we need to do is to continue to adhere to government protocols on COVID-19, either SARSCoV2, Gamma, Delta or Omicron variant, what is significant is to get vaccinated,” Odunmbaku said.
He added: “For those that are fully vaccinated, plans are on the way to roll out booster shots. The vaccines are effective, they save lives.”
According to Odunmbaku, to make the mass vaccination susceptible to the residents, five vaccination centres has been opened across Ojodu LCDA. “We want to make it easy for our people, vaccination centre has been opened at Baale’s Palace, Basiru Street; for market men and women, they can visit Office of Iya Oloja, and the other three are at Ojodu, Ogba and Oke-Ira Central Primary Healthcare Centres.”
