The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, on Monday, said 13 cases of the United Kingdom strain of the virus known as B117 have been discovered in Nigeria.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation stated this at the weekly press briefing of the PTF.
Mustapha 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 week and they all came out of samples collected between November and January.”
He stressed the importance of testing and charged sub-national entities to ensure that capacity of the laboratories that have been established within their jurisdictions be fully maximised.
Mustapha noted that the decision would reduce the duties of the National Reference Laboratory and the attendant lengthy turnaround time for test results.
Recall that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has debunked reports that it disqualified any African country from accessing COVID–19 vaccines through the COVAX facility.
The WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulomboo, made the clarification during a joint press conference with the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, on Saturday.
