People in Uganda queued up outside vaccination centers in the capital Kampala on Wednesday, a day after the country confirmed its first cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

The virus was detected in seven travellers from South Africa and Nigeria who arrived at Entebbe International Airport on November 29 and are currently in isolation.

Those affected were said to display only mild symptoms.

The arrival of the new variant has driven some previously vaccine-hesitant Ugandans to get a jab.

At the Kampala Capital City Authority mass vaccination site, several first-timers reported for their first jab fearing the country could return to the scenes witnessed during the second wave of the pandemic.