Kenya has begun another round of Covid-19 genome sequencing after two strains of international importance were found in the country.
Acting director-general for health Patrick Amoth said in December scientists picked the UK variant in two tourists from South Africa who were asymptomatic.
“We did contact tracing of the people who were in close contact with these two gentlemen who have since gone back to their country and all of them turned negative,” he said.
Another sequencing of 60 samples early this year isolated the South African variant in a sample from a truck driver who came into Kenya through Lunga Lunga.
However, contacts of this driver have since turned negative and there is no evidence the two strains are active in Kenya.
Amoth said even though the SA variant is more transmissible, the country has not recorded any upsurge of cases.
“So what we are doing is to ensure that we have heightened surveillance at the ports of entry and we continue to do genomic sequencing and beginning tomorrow (Friday) we will begin sequencing samples from Nairobi getting back to the samples we analysed in November because we archive all these samples, so that will be able to give us a picture,” he said.
Last month, the World Health Organization warned that if care is not taken, the new variants could fuel the country’s second wave that has flattened in the past weeks.
The global health agency is already working to track and tackle new variants by helping countries build and boost the complex genomic surveillance capacities needed to detect and respond to new variants, shipping samples to sequencing laboratories and providing supplies and technical guidance.
“Our shared goal is to get ahead of the virus. Unfortunately, the journey will be longer, harder and far more costly in the absence of consistent, all-of-society commitments to blocking infection,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti said in an online press briefing. Moeti is the WHO's regional director for Africa.
The 501Y.V2 variant, first identified in South Africa, is predominant and powering record case numbers in the sub-region.
The variant has now been found in Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, Comoros, Zambia and in 24 non-African nations, the WHO said.
So far, the agency in collaboration with Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has set up a Covid-19 genomic sequencing laboratory network with laboratories in several countries including Kenya.
Countries without the labs will be required to ship at least 20 samples to sequencing laboratories every month to help map the fast-evolving situation and best target responses at all levels.
“In addition to the new variants, Covid-19 fatigue and the aftermath of year-end gatherings risk powering a perfect storm and driving up Africa’s second wave and overwhelming health facilities,” Moeti said.
