The spread of new coronavirus variants in Africa is believed to have sparked an increase in both cases and deaths across the continent, according to experts.
At least a dozen countries have so far confirmed presence of the variant first detected in India late last year.
But there is concern that new variants can’t easily be tracked because the testing required to identify them isn’t widely available, the BBC reported yesterday.
The new wave of infections in Africa is thought to 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.
This variant has now been reported in Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, Botswana, Angola, DR Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
It has been classified by the WHO as a “variant of global concern” with possible increased transmissibility.
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 Organisation (WHO).
This variant has also been recorded in more than 20 other African countries.
It’s highly likely to have reached other countries, but few 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.
Twenty countries have also reported the presence of a COVID-19 variant first identified in the UK.
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.
It said 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.
However, a recent article in The Lancet – one of the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals – pointed out that while efforts were underway to expand this type of work, there were issues around funding, as well as shortages of reagents and staff with the skills required.
Over the past month, new cases across the continent declined by 9 percent, according to the CDC.
New cases have been rising in South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria but dropping in DR Congo, Ethiopia and Kenya.
