COVID-19 Variant Spreads to Africa... "Also Emerges in Nigeria"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on the 24th that a new variant of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) appears to have emerged in Nigeria as well.

According to the AP News on the same day, John Nkengasong, head of the Africa CDC, said, "It is a different lineage from the variants that emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa," adding, "However, further investigation is needed."

He added, "The Nigeria CDC and the local Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases will analyze more samples," and "It seems it will take some time." Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa.

He also said, "The alert about the emergence of the new variant is based on two or three genomic sequence analyses," and "The report of the new variant emergence in South Africa last weekend was enough to prompt this week's emergency meeting of the Africa CDC."

Recently, parts of Africa have shown a rapid increase in COVID-19 spread.

Nkengasong said that South Africa's new variant spreads faster and has a higher viral load, but it is still uncertain whether it leads to more severe disease.

The cumulative confirmed cases in South Africa are approaching 1 million.

He also stated that the South African variant is not expected to affect vaccine distribution in Africa.

The cumulative confirmed cases across the African continent have surpassed 2.5 million, accounting for 3.3% of the global total. Over the past four weeks, infections across Africa increased by 10.9%, with Nigeria and South Africa showing sharp rises of 52% and 40%, respectively, Nkengasong added.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.