Nigeria: New variant of Coronavirus found in Nigeria says Africa CDC (Centre for Disease Control). New 1041 cases were found on Thursday.
New guidelines are announced for international travelers.
After the United Kingdom and South Africa discovered a new variant of coronavirus, Nigeria saw yet another new variant of coronavirus strain.
“It's a separate lineage from the UK and South Africa,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in that country, Africa’s most populous, will be analyzing more samples. Give us some time ... It’s still very early, he said.
The news comes as infections surge again in parts of the African continent. The new variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. While the variant transmits quickly and viral loads are higher, it is not yet clear whether it leads to more severe disease, he said.
“We believe this mutation will not have an effect,” on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant. South Africa's health minister late Wednesday announced an ‘alarming rate of spread’ in that country, with more than 14,000 new cases confirmed in the past day, including more than 400 deaths. It was the largest single-day increase in cases.
Nigeria now has more than 80,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.
