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NAIROBI, Kenya: Another new variant of the novel coronavirus appears to have emerged in Nigeria, the head of Africa’s disease watchdog said on Thursday (December 24), 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.
Detection of the new variants in Nigeria and South Africa sparked an emergency meeting of the Africa CDC this week, Nkengasong said.
READ: Another new variant of the COVID-19 virus found in the UK: Minister of Health
The news comes as cases are increasing in both Nigeria and South Africa. Last week, Nigeria reported a 52 percent increase in cases and South Africa a 40 percent increase, Nkengasong said.
He said there was no evidence that the new variant contributed to increased transmission in Nigeria, but cautioned that the country conducts less genomic surveillance than Britain.
The Nigerian CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Infectious Disease Genomics in Nigeria will study more samples, Nkengasong said.
“Give us a little time … It’s still very early,” he said, in response to questions about the variant.
READ: What we know about the new strain of coronavirus found in Britain
Nigeria’s COVID-19 principal investigator has just publicly released 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.
“In recent weeks, we have had a huge increase in the number of samples for the (CDC Nigeria) reference laboratory,” CDC Nigeria Director General Chikwe Ihekweazu tweeted on Thursday.
“This has caused an unusual delay in testing, but we are working around the clock.”
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 cases surpassed 80,000 on Wednesday. Daily registered cases surpassed 1,000 for the first time this month.
Africa has reported more than 2.5 million coronavirus cases, accounting for 3.3 percent of global cases, according to the Africa CDC.
The newer, faster-spreading variant that South Africa detected on Dec. 18 is now predominant there, Nkengasong said, although, as with the new variant in Britain, there is no evidence that it leads to a more serious illness.
The rate of coronavirus infections in South Africa will soon exceed the peak reached in the first wave earlier this year, its health ministry said on Wednesday.
Nkengasong said the Africa CDC did not believe that the mutation in South Africa would affect the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines on the continent.
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