Africa’s top public health official announced the discovery of another new variant of the coronavirus that appears to have developed in Nigeria.
According to CBS, this discovery could add yet another new alarm in the pandemic. This comes after similar variants were already announced in the U.K. and South Africa, which led to the return of international travel restrictions and other protective measures that have drastically impacted the holiday season.
“It’s a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, said on Thursday.
Nkengasong explained that Nigeria’s CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases would be analyzing more samples of the variant.
“The new variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there,” Nkengasong said. This news comes as confirmed coronavirus infections in the country approach the 1 million milestone. Experts believe that the variant transmits quickly and viral loads are higher, but they are still unclear whether it leads to more severe disease.
“We believe this mutation will not have an effect” on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, Nkengasong said about the South Africa variant.
