Pat Stevens/
The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, has declared that the new highly transmissible variant of the COVID-19 has not been detected in the country.
Ihekweazu disclosed this today during a zoom briefing organised by the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa.
He explained that the NCDC was able to determine the absence of the new COVID-19 variant in the country through a genomic sequencing it conducted in partnership with African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Reedemer’s University, Ede, Osun State.
He however said NCDC would not relent in its disease surveillance efforts.
A tweet by NCDC, quoted Ihekweazu as stating during briefing, “Viruses mutate, emergence of new variant strains of #COVID19 isn’t news.
“Genomic sequencing in Nigeria, done with @acegid shows no evidence yet of variants associated with increased transmission, but we’re looking”
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