The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu has disclosed that the mutant strain of the Coronavirus found in the United Kingdom (U.K) is yet to be discovered in Nigeria. Iheakwazu made the disclosure in Abuja during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) briefing, advising Nigerians to stay calm and adhere to the pandemic guidelines. He explained that the NCDC in collaboration with the Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), carrying out sequencing but did not find the UK variant.
“Over the last few days, we have monitored reports of the virus mutating in the UK, South Africa and some other countries, but it is important to establish some facts about what we know, what we do not know and what we are willing to learn over the next few years.
“We haven’t found the UK strain but it is not something we have been looking for…To find that you have to do sequencing and our focus has not been on sequencing. We did some sequencing in the past but we haven’t found that.
“However, we are doing more sequencing now. Is it possible that they are circulating? Yes. This is because there are a lot of travels between the UK and Nigeria,” he said.
The NCDC boss noted that the NCDC will partner with other stakeholders to collect new samples for sequencing towards determining new variant, as ever virus mutates.
“This is ongoing work. It cannot happen in a hurry. It is very complex. Sequencing is not a straight forward business which is why we have only a few centres that are able to do it,” he said.
