By Aiyeku Timothy
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the emergence of COVID-19 new variants in Africa which seems to have higher transmissibility.
WHO therefore alerted countries to boost genomic surveillance and conduct analysis through the African genome sequencing laboratory network to detect any new mutations and strengthen efforts to curb the pandemic.
It would be recalled that a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, which appears to transmit more quickly was detected in South Africa and it is suspected to be the ongoing surge of COVID-19 infections in the country.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa therefore, expressed concern over the increasing rate of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
“The emergence of new Coronavirus variants is common. However, those with higher speed of transmission or potentially increased pathogenicity are very concerning,” he said.
“Crucial investigations are underway to comprehensively understand the behaviour of the new mutant virus and steer response accordingly.”
However, South Africa has carried out most of the 4,948 sequences and has identified 35 SARS-CoV-2 lineages while Nigeria is carrying out more investigations on a variant identified in samples collected in August and October.
The WHO Regional Office for Africa is providing technical guidance and mobilizing additional financial support to speed up the genomic sequencing in most countries in the region as well as assisting in shipping samples to regional reference laboratories from countries that do not have specialized diagnostic facilities.
Dr Moeti therefore stressed public health measures such as social distancing, handwashing, and the wearing of masks.
“The current preventive measures are effective even on the new SARS-CoV-2 variants,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has warned of a possible spike in coronavirus cases in January of 2021 resulting from a violation of safety protocols.
The Director-General of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, while speaking during the National briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 on Tuesday in Abuja made this claim.
“January will be a tough month, no doubt about it. So, we have to brace ourselves for the consequences of the activities that we decided to carry out in December. Our colleagues, the Chief Medical Directors CMDs are here today because of the pressures that we face across the country,” he had said.
