The Federal Government has disclosed that seven cases of the UK variant of COVID-19 have been identified in the country.
It stated that the Africa Centre for Excellence in Genomics in Ede identified five cases in Osun, one in Kwara, and one in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It therefore urged health workers to increase their index of suspicion for COVID-19 as the new variant has been identified with increased transmission.
The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, made these known in Abuja, during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
He said,: “We are all aware that there is increasing transmission and this virus is adapting all the time. We are working very hard with my colleagues to get access to the vaccines because if we don’t, the virus keeps circulating, mutating and potentially getting better adapted to (PTF) the environment and its ability to transmit.
“An additional layer to understanding this is improving our capacity to do genomic surveillance, and we continue to do this over the last week, working with few other centres in the country to define an approach to improving our ability of genomic surveillance.
“On the 30th of January, our partners at the Africa Centre for Excellence in Genomics in Ede, confirmed five more cases of the United Kingdom (UK) variant in Nigeria. One in the FCT, five in Osun, and one from Kwara state. All together, we now have seven. The number in Osun state obviously relates to the fact that this centre is in Osun, so it should not be over-interpreted.
“The fact that we are finding the variant is not surprising because it is found in more than 50 countries around the world. As countries look for this, they will find them because people travel and viruses travel with people as they travel.”
Ihekweazu noted that some health workers, particularly doctors and nurses were found not to be wearing their face mask within the hospital premises. He therefore urged them to be an example to Nigerians by complying with the protocols.
He said: “We are gradually experiencing an increase in the number of deaths. These are really tragic circumstances. Everything we are doing in the response is really about preventing severe cases and death. This is what we are most worried about.
“We really need to protect our health care workers and increase their index of suspicion for COVID-19.
“In the last one week, we had 75 healthcare workers infected in Nigeria. So we are very worried about this. We can reduce this risk by maintaining a high level of suspicion for COVID-19 all the time.”
