The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has revealed that the B117 strain of COVID-19 which was found in UK has now been recorded in the country.

Recently the UK announced the discovery of a new strain of SARS-CoV-2. This mutated virus has been named B117 virus or VUI2020/21 and it has scared virologists and healthcare experts in the UK and across the world.

The PTF chairman and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, disclosed this at the briefing of the PTF today January 25.

According to Mustapha, four persons have been diagnosed with the B117 strain in Nigeria. He said of the four persons, three are travellers from Nigeria to other places while the fourth case was discovered in-country.

“Over the last few weeks, the PTF has been closely following the rising number of infections reported daily in Nigeria and in other jurisdictions. Similarly, our scientists have been sequencing the variants of the virus.

There have been reports of cases with the B117 variant strain, first reported in the UK, found in Nigeria. Three of these were in travellers out of Nigeria and one a resident” he said.