The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has encouraged nations across the continent to record the emerging sequences and variants of the coronavirus – to help scientists better-understand how to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Africa CDC Director, John Nkengasong, was speaking during a virtual media briefing.
“In light of these emerging variants, we continue to support countries to generate sequences across all member-states. As of today 7000 COVID sequences, or SARS-Cov-2 sequences, have been uploaded on the international portal to monitor the circulation of any variant. Our target as Africa CDC is to expand this to about 50 000 sequences in the coming months in order to better understand what is going on across the continent,” Nkengasong.
South Africa remains the country with the most recorded infections in Africa. The first batch of Johnson and Johnson vaccines are being rolled out to health workers in the country.
Africa CDC update on rollout in Africa:
Scientists to meet
South African scientists will meet today to discuss a laboratory study over the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s efficacy against the coronavirus variant discovered in the country. This follows the findings of a study that suggested the variant may reduce antibody protection from the vaccine by two-thirds.
Speaking to the Reuters News Agency, spokesperson for the Health Ministry Popo Maja said government will be guided by the recommendations of the scientists in the matter. South Africa plans to start rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the coming months. Spokesperson for health regulator SAHPRA, Yuven Gounden said the Pfizer application was currently under review. – Additional reporting by Reuters
