A New Variant Of COVID-19 Appears Again, This Time In Nigeria

Illustration (Martin Sanchez / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The African Disease Control Agency (CDC) said a new variant of COVID-19 had emerged in Nigeria. For this reason, the owner of the policy directly directs personnel to carry out further investigations regarding the new variant of COVID-19.

Launching Aljazeera, Friday, December 25, the discovery of a new variant of COVID-19 in Nigeria should be watched out for. The government is obliged to immediately implement international restrictions and other measures, especially when the world begins to enter the holiday season.

"This is a new variant of COVID-19 from separate lineages in Britain and South Africa," said John Nkengasong, Head of the CDC Africa Center.

Nkengasong also added that the African CDC will analyze more samples. The effort is to detect the extent to which the new variant of COVID-19 has infected the African population. “Give us time. It's still very early days. "

The discovery of this new variant of COVID-19 prompted the African CDC to conduct an emergency meeting. This was triggered by the discovery of the new variant in two patient samples on August 3 and October 9 in Osun State, Nigeria. Even so, the new variant was not like the one developed in England with a faster transmission rate.

“We have not observed such a rapid lineage increase in Nigeria and have no evidence to suggest that the P681H variant is contributing to the increase in viral transmission in Nigeria. However, the relative differences in Nigeria and the UK may imply a decrease in the power to detect such changes, "said Nkengasong.

Appeared amidst a surge in transmission

The discovery of a new variant of COVID-19 in Nigeria and South Africa actually emerged when the two countries experienced a spike in cases. In the past week, Nigeria has reported an increase of 52 percent, and South Africa has increased 40 percent.

Of the two countries, South Africa was the country with the most COVID-19 infections. Therefore, the infection in that country is almost close to one million cases. Even so, the presence of a new variant of COVID-19 cannot be ascertained that it will worsen people with the virus from Wuhan.

"We believe this mutation will not have an effect," explained Nkengasong.

Meanwhile, South African Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize on Wednesday evening, had announced an alarming rate of spread in the country. What's more, more than 14,000 new cases were confirmed on the last day, including 400 deaths.

"Over the last few weeks, we have had a huge increase in the number of samples going to the laboratory," said CDC Director General Chikwe Ihekweazu.

"This causes unusual delays with testing, but we are working around the clock," he concluded.