EDITORIAL: Omicron is in Lagos, should Alimosho be worried?

NIGERIA, on Wednesday, December 1st, 2021, joined the growing number of countries that have recorded the first cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The pandemic has been spewing different forms of the virus and this is its latest release. 

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed the omicron variant in travellers arriving the country from South Africa over a week ago. There were also two cases of the new COVID-19 variant in Nigerian travellers reported by Canada so it is not far from the truth that a new form of COVID-19 is already being transmitted in the Lagos crowd. 

Variants of the coronavirus are plentiful. The more the virus spreads, the more likely it is to transform into a new type or mutate. Mutations arise as the virus multiplies after infecting a human host. Once inside of a person, the virus’s job is to instruct the person’s cells to make copies of the virus and then go on to infect more cells before eventually infecting other people. 

Mutations are far more likely to happen in people with weakened immune systems and in unvaccinated people because their immune systems are not prepared by the vaccines to destroy the virus as quickly as possible, before it has a chance to mutate.

The South African people have a relatively low vaccination rate, with only approximately 35 percent of the population fully vaccinated. Botswana, where the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is thought to have originated, has an even lower vaccination rate than South Africa. This may be part of the reason why both countries suffered the first casualties of Omicron. 

Lagos has a notoriously low vaccination rate for a city that is so populated. We will be easily susceptible to the new variant of COVID-19 since the majority of Lagos residents still are not vaccinated against the virus.

Alimosho should be especially worried. We have some of the most densely populated areas in the state, we also have an obvious mass of people who take no responsibility by wearing face masks to protect themselves or washing hands and surfaces regularly. Christmas is here and the year will be rounded off with festivities in which we cannot afford to be careless. 

An Omicron intrusion in Alimosho would be particularly devastating. It could as well be the deciding factor in an incoming fourth wave of COVID-19 infections as the Lagos State Ministry of Health have feared. It is time to take handwashing seriously, mask up, and get vaccinated as soon as you can.