17 Countries Report Presence of 501y.v2 Variant: Africa CDC

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Thursday disclosed that the number of African countries that have so far reported the presence of 501Y.V2 COVID-19 variant climbed to 17.

The latest three African countries that have reported the presence of 501Y.V2 COVID-19 variant during the past week are said to be Eswatini, Malawi and Namibia, according to the agency.

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The other 14 African countries that have reported the presence of the 501Y.V2 variant are Angola, Cameroon, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, it was noted.

The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union (AU), also stressed that the number of countries that have reported the presence of the 501Y.V1 variant has also climbed to 16.

The 15 African countries that have reported the presence of the 501Y.V1 variant are Angola, Algeria, DRC, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo and Tunisia, it was noted. Togo is said to be the latest African country to report the presence of the 501Y.V1 variant.

According to the latest figures from the Africa CDC, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 4,062,388, as the death due to the pandemic reached 108,000 as of Thursday noon.