Another new variant of coronavirus has emerged in Nigeria, Africa’s leading public health official has said.
John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed the existence of the new P681H strain on Thursday – saying it is different to the ones found recently in the UK and South Africa.
But he added that it is still too early to tell what effects the new variant might possess, saying that scientists needed ‘more time’ to study it.
That strain has emerged as Nigeria reports record numbers of coronavirus cases – with 1,133 recored Wednesday.
Nigeria has been reporting record numbers of coronavirus cases within the past few days, amid which a new coronavirus strain has emerged
Deaths within the African nation – the continent’s most-populous – have also begun rising in recent days, though have not come close to the first wave peak
Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous country, reported just five deaths from the virus Wednesday, well below its first-wave peak.
Coronavirus variants emerge routinely as the virus spreads, but those in the UK and South Africa have been widely reported because scientists believe they are significantly more infectious than previous strains.
New variants could also affect the ability of vaccines to fight the virus, though this is not thought to be the case with the UK or South African variant.
The Nigerian variant’s potential effect on vaccines is so-far unclear. ‘Give us some time,’ Dr Nkengasong urged. ‘It’s still very early.’
An emergency meeting of the Africa CDC will now take place this week to discuss the new strains, including the one in South Africa that has seen cases soar.
The Nigerian variant was found in two patient samples collected on August 3 and October 9 in southern Osun state, 100 miles north of Lagos.
Unlike the variant seen in the UK, ‘we haven’t observed such rapid rise of the lineage in Nigeria and do not have evidence to indicate that the P681H variant is contributing to increased transmission of the virus in Nigeria,’ a working paper said
South Africa has reported 14,046 new cases of coronavirus – the country’s highest one-day total of the entire pandemic, driven by a new and more infectious mutant strain
The country also reported 411 deaths on Wednesday, its third-highest total of the pandemic and the first time that deaths have risen above the 400 mark since August 5
The UK is among eight countries that have cut off most or all travel from South Africa to try and control the spread, though the virus has already been found in two locations in Britain
‘However, the relative difference in scale of genomic surveillance in Nigeria vs the U.K. may imply a reduced power to detect such changes,’ the paper says.
Dr Nkengasong said the Nigeria CDC and the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases will analyse more samples.
The news comes as infections surge again in parts of the African continent.
The region has now reported more than 2.5million coronavirus cases and 60,000 deaths from the virus, driven in part by an ‘exponential’ outbreak in South Africa that is being driven by a new mutant form of the virus
Announcing the new figures on Wednesday, Dr Mkhize said the ‘rate of spread is much faster than the first wave and we will surpass the peak of the first wave in the coming days.’
‘We must warn South Africans that we will need to review the current restrictions and consider further measures to ensure that we curb this alarming rate of spread,’ he added.
‘We can never stress enough the need for citizens to take every precaution necessary as we celebrate the festive season and look for reprieve from a tough year.
‘Unfortunately, Covid-19 is unrelenting and we, therefore, cannot afford to be complacent at this stage.’
The surge in cases is being driven by young people who have been accused of ignoring social distancing rules at end-of-year parties and festive celebrations.
Dr Mkhize has raised the possibility that the disease could also be more lethal in young people, saying that doctors ‘are seeing a larger proportion of younger patients with no co-morbidities presenting with critical illness’.
However, he also stressed that research into the new variant – first identified in South Africa on Friday last week – is still in its early stages and it is too soon to definitivley tell whether it causes more severe disease.
South Africa has reported a record number of coronavirus cases in a single day, driven by a new ‘more infectious’ variant that has already been found in the UK.
The country logged more than 14,000 cases on Wednesday, its highest total of the pandemic so far, while deaths topped 400 for the first time since August 5.
Dr Zweli Mkhize, South Africa’s minister of health, warned the virus is now spreading ‘exponentially’ and new lockdown measures may have to be brought in.
Eight countries have banned travellers from South Africa to try and contain the spread of the new strain, including the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
A new variant of coronavirus has emerged in Nigeria, Africa’s most-populous country, that is different to the variants found in the UK and South Africa, medics have said
The mutant strain was first noticed amid rising Covid-19 cases, which the country had not predicted to see until its winter began in April next year.
Professor Tulio de Oliveira told CBS News that rising cases had been spotted along the South African coast.
Prof de Oliveira warned: ‘Maybe the virus is beginning to outsmart us.’
He added: ‘We are quite concerned, not only for South Africa, but also for the rest of Africa.
‘Our health system has been has been affected by 20 years of HIV and TB epidemics, so we are quite concerned that while Africa may have escaped the first wave quite successfully, if it doesn’t become more strict and try to control this virus, we may not escape this this second wave as successfully as we did in the first one.’
The mutation means the country may see ‘many more cases’ in the new wave than it experienced in the first surge of the disease.
Young people have hit the headlines in South Africa for fuelling the spread of the new strain with raves and parents have been criticised for not keeping their children under stricter control.
Super-spreader events including football tournaments, weddings, street parties and pub sessions have been widely reported on social media.
Mutations in viruses are to be expected – more than 4,000 different strains of coronavirus have already been tracked – but genomics experts look out for critical changes to the spike proteins which can alter how people suffer from the disease.
‘In the UK they have also identified a new variant… there are quite a few similarities between the two lineages… there are also a similar number of mutations,’ said Professor Tulio de Oliviera, a member of Cape Town’s genomics consortium.
The two cases of the South African variant discovered in Britain were found in London and the North West.
The fact that they were detected through random routine sampling which picks out only around one in 10 tests carried out – and that they are thought to have been infected by separate travellers – suggests there are many more cases of the variant already in Britain.
Britain has been leading the world in tracking changes to the virus so it is likely that many more such mutants are already widespread.
The British mutant has already appeared in samples taken by scientists in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia.
But in the case of the British variant, scientists have expressed confidence that the mutation will not impact the efficacy of the vaccine.
This is because when the body produced antibodies to a virus it does so for large chunks of its genetic data, meaning that a more significant mutation would be required to defeat the vaccine.