Researchers have submitted data to the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggesting that the world’s most mutated Covid-19 variant has been found in travellers from Tanzania.
A report submitted to the United Nations agency by a health expert says the strain has several more mutations than any other version recorded so far.
Tulio de Oliveira, director of Krisp, a scientific institute that carries out genetic testing for 10 African nations, said his team found the variant in travellers arriving in Angola from Tanzania.
Meanwhile, little is known about the virus in Tanzania after the East African country stopped releasing data on Covid-19 during the late former president John Magufuli’s time in office, raising fears of a hidden epidemic.
Tanzania’s new President Samia Suluhu Hassan is expected to introduce new policies to combat the virus. This will be against what her predecessor John Pombo Magufuli believed.
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