UK COVID-19 strain now in Nigeria, says PTF

• National toll hits 122,996

The COVID-19 strain first reported in the United Kingdom has been found in Nigeria, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has said.

PTF Chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, stated this at the group’s briefing in Abuja, on Monday.

He said scientists found the variant in Nigeria after a long time of sequencing.

This came as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday said it recorded 1,430 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 122,996.

Mustapha said, “Over the last few weeks, the PTF has been closely following the rising number of infections reported daily in Nigeria and other jurisdictions.

“Similarly, our scientists have been sequencing the variants of the virus. There have been reports of cases with the B117 variant strain, first reported in the UK, found in Nigeria.”

He appealed to all Nigerians to take responsibility and stay very safe, urging everyone with underlying factors including parents and school proprietors to take precautionary measures at home and in the schools when managing the pupils and students.

He said, “The PTF will continue to work with the federal ministry of education around the reopening of schools.

“The management of cases is gradually improving with the availability of medical oxygen. Government is also fast-tracking the rehabilitation of existing plants and construction of new ones as approved by the president.”

The UK variant known as B.1.1.7 is said to be deadlier than the original strain.

Since the discovery of the virus strain, more cases have been reported in the UK as the government imposed lockdowns in parts of the country.

Many countries, including France and Saudi Arabia, have banned international flights to the UK over new strain of COVID-19.

Concerns have thus been raised about the effectiveness of existing vaccines against COVID-19, especially as the vaccines were developed in the UK.

In December, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said a new variant of COVID-19 was reported in Nigeria.

Nkengasong said the virus strain was different from the one in the UK.

Meanwhile, the NCDC reported Monday, “1,430 new cases of #COVID19Nigeria; Lagos-744 Plateau-100 Oyo-77 FCT-75 Nasarawa-74 Katsina-48 Edo-42 Kano-41 Enugu-37 Rivers-34 Ogun-33 Kwara-32 Niger-28 Ebonyi-27 Kaduna-26 Borno-12 Yobe-10 Ekiti-5 Gombe-1.

“Our discharges today include 435 community recoveries in Lagos State and 184 community recoveries in Kaduna State managed in line with guidelines.”