Prognosis
Rapidly Spreading Variants Compound Africa’s Coronavirus Woes
- Strain in East Africa is spreading along trucking routes
- Scientist sounds alarm bells over emergence of mutations
Photographer: Luis Tato/AFP/Getty Images
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New coronavirus variants have proliferated across southern and eastern Africa, exacerbating the challenge of bringing the pandemic under control, analysis of the genomics data shows.
A strain first detected in South Africa late last year is “completely dominating all infection in southern Africa and seems to be entering East Africa,” said Tulio de Oliveira, director of Krisp, a genomics institute in the port city of Durban, which is leading a group that’s evaluating the data. “Another variant is completely dominating infections in Uganda and Rwanda, and is spreading through truck routes.”