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A third mutant coronavirus has been found in Nigeria, where cases are on the rise, after another highly contagious variant broke out in the UK.
The new variant of the coronavirus comes after a second was reported in South Africa, where cases are skyrocketing alongside its mainland neighbor.
The South African mutation has reached the UK, where the first variant was discovered that turned out to be more contagious than the initial virus.
While all viruses undergo multiple mutations, up to two per month, most mutations do not change the behavior of the virus or its power.
However, the UK and South African variants are believed to make the virus more transmissible, accelerating the rate at which it spreads between humans.
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Newer variants of SARS-CoV-2 from Great Britain and South Africa appear to be more contagious and have led to new travel restrictions and market disturbances.
Now in Nigeria, the head of Africa’s disease watchdog has revealed that another new variant of the novel coronavirus appears to have emerged and says more research is needed.
“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.
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Detection of the new variants in Nigeria and South Africa sparked an emergency meeting of the Africa CDC this week, Nkengasong said.
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.
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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.
Nigeria’s Covid-19 principal investigator has just publicly released the genomic sequences of the new variant, he added.
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Nigeria’s CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Nkengasong’s comments when approached by Reuters.
“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.”
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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% 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 Africa’s CDC did not believe the mutation in South Africa would affect the deployment of Covid-19 vaccines on the continent.
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