Second Africa Country Confirms Coronavirus Variant

The Nigerian CDC posted on Twitter on December 24, 2020, “Following reports of COVID19 virus mutation, we worked on a retrospective analysis of data from virus sequencing in Nigeria and found 2 samples that are similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus variant reported by the UK, but it is not the same. We’re now scaling up on sequencing & further analysis."

Nigeria is located in western Africa and is the continent'ss most populous country, with more than 200 million people.

Another coronavirus variant termed 501.V2 was identified in South Africa on December 18, 2020. And, Public Health England had confirmed a novel variant had been identified, B.1.1.7, which has spread rapidly within the UK.