Ghana says it has detected omicron variant in at airport

By FRANCIS KOKUTSE
Associated Press

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — Ghana says that its scientists have detected cases of the omicron coronavirus variant in passengers who arrived in the country on Nov. 21. The Director General of the Ghana Health Service Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said Wednesday that the cases were detected at the Kotoka International Airport after tests were conducted on passengers. He said no cases have been found within communities in Ghana, indicating that it has not yet spread locally. William Ampofo, a virologist at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, where the sequencing was done, said that weekly samples of 200 passengers arriving at the airport detected that 28% of passengers arriving from Nigeria and South Africa had the variant.