A new distinct variant of COVID-19, lineage B.1.1.7, which has cancelled Christmas in the UK, has been found in Nigeria, but its origin comes from samples collected within the country in October, Christian Happi, director of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), told BusinessDay.
Out of about 250 samples genetically sequenced since the start of the prevalence of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, scientists at ACEGID detected a departure in two later discovered to be the same variant driving a storming second wave of the pandemic in the UK.
Happi couldn’t tell the rate of infection featured in this new Nigerian variant but scientific reports say the B.1.1.7 lineage accounts for an increasing proportion of cases in parts of England, and has an unusually large number of genetic changes, particularly in the spike protein.
Researchers found B.1.1.7 has acquired 23 mutations so far.
“There is no evidence of the Nigerian strain being more infectious than the first strain SARS-CoV-2. We don’t know that yet,” Happi, a professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics, said.
However, in places where it has become more common, the overall number of coronavirus cases is spiking.
Estimates by Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, in a New York Times report, show that the variant has an increased transmission rate of 50 to 70 percent compared to other variants in the United Kingdom.
