13 new UK COVID-19 variants discovered in Nigeria – PTF

The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, on Monday, disclosed that 13 cases of the United Kingdom strain of the virus known as B117 have so far been detected in Nigeria.

The chairman of the task force, Boss Mustapha, disclosed this at the weekly press briefing of the PTF.

Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said, “The PTF (through the NCDC) is working with the Africa CDC on genomic surveillance.

“A total of 13 B117 variant strains have so far been detected in Nigeria.

“Six out of these numbers were detected in the last one week and they all came out of samples collected between November and January.”

He said testing was still being aggressively pursued as a viable strategy and that the PTF shall continue to appeal to not just the citizens to get tested but call on sub-national entities to ensure that capacity of the laboratories that have been established within their jurisdictions be fully maximised.

This, he said, would help reduce the burden on the National Reference Laboratory and the attendant lengthy turnaround time for test results.