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Three days after the confirmation of Nigeria’s first COVID-19 case, the genome sequencing results of the SARS-CoV-2 specimen were announced on March 1. The sputum samples, taken from an Italian consultant who entered Nigeria through Lagos on February 27 before traveling to the neighboring Ogun State, were analyzed at the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) at Redeemer University. They became the first analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in Africa, signaling the continent’s contribution to the growing global body of evidence to understand the virus’s behavior outside China.
“We have moved from being spectators to contributors and players in the field of infectious disease genomics,” Christian Happi, ACEGID director in Ede, Nigeria, who led the sequencing effort, tells The Scientist.
Whether the tool is used for disease outbreaks or routine surveillance, we now have the capacity to perform in-country sequencing, which has traditionally been ...
