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Another new variant of the novel coronavirus appears to have emerged in Nigeria, the head of Africa’s disease watchdog said on Thursday, warning that more research is needed.
The news comes after Britain and South Africa reported new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that appear to be more contagious, sparking new travel restrictions and market turmoil.
“It’s a different lineage from the UK and South African lineages,” John Nkengasong, director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said at an online press conference from Addis Ababa.
“The one we are seeing in Nigeria, and this is based on very limited data still, has the 501 mutation,” added Nkengasong, referring to the so-called 501.V2 variant identified in South Africa and announced by public health officials there on December 18. . .
The Nigerian CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Infectious Disease Genomics in Nigeria will study more samples, Nkengasong said.
The country’s main Covid-19 researcher has just publicly published the genomic sequences of the new variant, he added.
Nigeria’s CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Nkengasong’s remarks.
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa with more than 200 million people, has seen fewer coronavirus cases than many others on the continent.
The total number of cases topped 80,000 on Wednesday. Daily reported cases surpassed 1,000 for the first time this month.
