Coronavirus: Growing Concern in Africa Over New Variants

Experts believe the increase in both cases and deaths reported across the continent is a result of the spread of new coronavirus variants in Africa.

Some of the variants are had to track because the testing required to identify them is limited.

The “variants of concern” that are kept under the closest watch by health officials include:

The India variant (B.1.617.2) of which more than 2,000 cases have been seen in across the UK

The UK or Kent variant (also known as B.1.1.7) is prevalent in Britain – with more than 200,000 cases identified – and has spread to more than 50 countries and appears to be mutating again

The South Africa variant (B.1.351) has been identified in at least 20 other countries, including the UK

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The Brazil variant (P.1) has spread to more than 10 other countries, including the UK

The new wave of infections in Africa may be partly associated with the emergence of some variants that are more transmissible.

Uganda was the first country on the continent to confirm the presence of a variant first identified in India late last year, based on a sample taken from a traveller. Kenya, Morocco and South Africa later confirmed cases of this variant.

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Another variant of the virus which emerged in South Africa last year contributed to record case numbers in the southern African region, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

South Africa has had the most cases on the continent and this variant has also been recorded in more than 20 other African countries.

However few countries are able to carry out the specialised genomic sequencing to detect coronavirus variants.

In Nigeria, scientists have also identified a new variant of the virus, although there is currently no evidence to indicate it is contributing to increased transmission and deaths.

The WHO and the African Centres for Disease Control launched a network of laboratories last year to try to boost the continent’s capacity to identify these variants.

They stated the emergence of new, and more contagious variants “reinforced the need to step up genomic surveillance.” This involves analysing the code of the virus to understand its genetic makeup.