Tanzania could see the birth of a new strain of Covid-19

The five African nations that reported the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the last week were: South Africa, Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Burundi.

The possibility of the emergence of a new variant of COVID-19 in Africa shortly is latent, warned Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the African Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC, in English).

In his weekly press conference, quoted by Xinhua, Ogwell said that "the increase is a clear sign that there is a high possibility that a new, more transmissible variant will appear."

According to official statistics from the African CDC, the continent has seen an average increase of 36% in new coronavirus infections in the last four weeks.

The central and eastern African regions reported an increase in COVID-19 cases of 113% and 54%, respectively.

More tests and vaccines for Tanzania & other African nations

"We need to do more testing and sequencing so that we can understand where the sprouts are and identify which variant is emerging," Ogwell said.

The health authorities also asked to reinforce vaccination, because "we are unmistakably seeing a growing number of deaths due to the pandemic as cases have been increasing in the last four weeks."

The five African nations that reported the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the last week were: South Africa, with 50,404 cases; Tanzania, with 1,482; Namibia, with 1,054; Zimbabwe, with 910; and Burundi, with 817 cases, according to Ogwell.