The mutant strain of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom has not been found in the country, director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, has said.
Dr Ihekweazu said the NCDC did some sequencing in the past but did not find the variant which was said to be deadlier than the original strain of the virus.
Speaking during the media briefing by the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 in Abuja on Thursday, Ihekweazu said viruses by their nature mutate, noting that the important thing was for people to stay calm and safe.
He said, “Over the last few days, we have monitored reports of the virus mutating in the UK, South Africa and some other countries but it is important to establish some facts about what we know, what we do not know and what we are willing to learn over the next few years.
“The most important fact to put out there to calm everybody’s nerves is that viruses mutate all the time.
“We haven’t found that UK strain but also, it is not something we have been looking for on the go. To find that, you have to do sequencing. And our focus has not been on sequencing. We did some sequencing in the past but we haven’t found that.”
“We only found two were similar but not the same. However, we are doing more sequencing. Is it possible that they are circulating? Yes. This is because there are a lot of travels between the UK and Nigeria,” he added.
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