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It was discovered in travelers from Tanzania in Angola, the head of the African disease protection agency Africa CDC, John Nkengasong, said at a news conference Thursday. The new variant has up to 40 mutations. “That is certainly a variant that raises concern,” he said.
Tanzania, in East Africa, has not released any data on the corona virus since the middle of last year. The CDC explains that there is currently no information on the exact number of cases there. The recently deceased President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, had late introduced relatively lax crown restrictions. A Zurich party provider recently announced trips to Tanzania.
Third wave
“Unfortunately, we don’t know how this variant reacts to vaccines,” Nkengasong explained. There is now a surveillance system in neighboring Tanzania, while the mutant is being tested in South Africa. According to the CDC, the highly contagious variant B.1.1.7, which was first discovered in Britain, has now been detected on the continent in 18 countries and the “South African” variant B.1.3.5.1 in another 18.
More than 40 million tests have been conducted in Africa since the pandemic began. “The continent is slowly moving into a third wave, which is to be expected,” Nkengasong said. While western and southern Africa in particular continue to see declining numbers of new infections, they are now increasing in central, eastern and northern Africa in particular.
Shipping restrictions from India
Nkengasong welcomed the fact that Africa would also produce its own vaccines in the future. The basis for this is an agreement between the African Union and the American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson for a total of 400 million doses. A large part will be produced in South Africa. The agreement initially provides for the purchase of 220 million cans with an option for a further 180 million.
However, the CDC director warned of the adverse effects of India’s delivery restrictions, which also slowed the UN’s Covax initiative for rapid delivery of vaccines to poorer countries. “Any delay will prevent Africa from achieving its objectives quickly,” he said. Covax will seek other sources of recruitment. So far, African countries have purchased nearly 30 million doses of vaccine, of which about a third have been vaccinated. 28 states received it through the Covax initiative, 20 states also through bilateral agreements.
Most cases in South Africa
According to the Africa CDC, about 4.2 million corona infections have been recorded on the African continent since the start of the pandemic, corresponding to 3.3 percent of the infections discovered worldwide. About 89 percent of them have recovered. From a global perspective, the entire continent, with 112,000 cases, accounts for only 4 percent of recorded deaths.
South Africa has the highest number of cases with more than 1.5 million infections, 37 percent of all infections recorded in Africa. They are followed by Morocco (12 percent), Tunisia (6), Egypt (5) and Ethiopia (5). According to experts, there is a high number of unreported cases on the continent with 1.3 billion people. (SDA / bra)
Posted: 04/01/2021, 57 minutes ago
Last Updated: April 1, 2021, 52 minutes ago
