Nigerian scientist claims a new varaint of COVID-19 found in the UK, allegedly in Nigeria.
A blogsite with the name, “Instablog” reported that the new variant was identified in Nigeria by scientists at the Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), at the Redeemers University in Ede, Osun State.
“The B.1.1.7 lineage we found in Nigeria, predating the one described in the UK, has also been observed to rise rapidly in the UK over the past four weeks, indicating the plausible increased spread of the virus by specific non-synonymous mutations in the spike protein,” Professor of molecular biology and genomics who is also the Director at the Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID),Christian Happi said.
Reaction flood social media upon breaking the news. However, the Nigerian Federal Government is yet to confirm the news.
