Figure: Nigerian scientists are working to better understand coronavirus. Photo Source: African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Disease

The first coronavirus infection in Nigeria was recorded on February 27, 2020. Samples were sent to the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control for genome sequencing. As a result, the first SARS-CoV-2 sequence data on the African continent was published on March 6, 2020. Now, scientists at ACEGID in Nigeria's Redeemer's University identified seven lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus out of over 1,000 in the world.

The scientists found each lineage represents sequences from different countries and some have overlapping sources of origin. The first lineage represents viral sequences from China and global exports including South East Asia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the US, and Europe. The second lineage comes from the Italian outbreak, while the third represents a new European lineage. The fourth represents sequences from the UK, Iceland, and Turkey.

The fifth lineage represents sequences from the Netherlands, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Finland, and England. The sixth represents a sequence from the Netherlands, and the seventh represents sequences from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Finland, and England. The lineages identified in Nigeria are not different from the ones that have been identified in other parts of the world, and there are no reports of strains or lineages unique to Nigeria thus far.

For more details, read the article in The Conversation.