After the first quarter of 2021, it appeared as if the worst about the COVID-19 pandemic had ended because of reduction in the cases of the COVID-19 virus. This made everyone go about their normal activities especially after arrival of COVID-19 vaccines.
But the incident of new cases or the third wave of the pandemic in India raised concerns as India is one of the countries frequented by Nigerians for medical tourism and education.
In April 2021, some tweets emerged with claims that scientists had found five sequences of the Indian variant in Edo and Osun states and other claims there is a new B.1.1.138 COVID-19 Variant in Nigeria.
The messages on Twitter and WhatsApp had cautioned that people should not travel to these affected States with people advised to adhere to the safety protocols.
For instance, @woye1 tweeted: “Prepare for 3rd Covid-19 wave in Nigeria as scientists have found five sequences of the deadly India B.1.617 in Edo N60bn & Osun dancing states. From Redeemer’s Uni, a new B.1.1.138 variant has emerged in Nigeria that is creating havoc in Mauritius Island (don’t travel there)”.
@Also,
After the first quarter of 2021, it appeared as if the worst about the COVID-19 pandemic had ended because of reduction in the cases of the COVID-19 virus. This made everyone go about their normal activities especially after arrival of COVID-19 vaccines.
But the incident of new cases or the third wave of the pandemic in India raised concerns as India is one of the countries frequented by Nigerians for medical tourism and education.
In April 2021, some tweets emerged with claims that scientists had found five sequences of the Indian variant in Edo and Osun states and other claims there is a new B.1.1.138 COVID-19 Variant in Nigeria.
The messages on Twitter and WhatsApp had cautioned that people should not travel to these affected States with people advised to adhere to the safety protocols.
For instance, @woye1 tweeted: “Prepare for 3rd Covid-19 wave in Nigeria as scientists have found five sequences of the deadly India B.1.617 in Edo N60bn & Osun dancing states. From Redeemer’s Uni, a new B.1.1.138 variant has emerged in Nigeria that is creating havoc in Mauritius Island (don’t travel there)”.
Also, @codonye wrote: “The Indian variant of Covid-19 I am told has been isolated here in Nigeria. We go back to the trenches. Prevention is the way. We don’t have the capacity to deal with this if we begin to report high cases. breathless, co-morbid Wear a mask..prevent Covid.”
wrote: “The Indian variant of Covid-19 I am told has been isolated here in Nigeria. We go back to the trenches. Prevention is the way. We don’t have the capacity to deal with this if we begin to report high cases. breathless, co-morbid Wear a mask..prevent Covid.”
Yet, @jhon_Odey wrote: “Indian COVID-19 variants are now in Nigeria, please stay safe out there folks.”
Verification
An advanced google web search revealed the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) at the Redeemers University, Ede Osun State, had informed the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) about the discovery of the Indian COVID-19 strain in Nigeria.
In Nigeria, there are three institutions with sequencing capacity for COVID-19 variants. These are NCDC, the Nigeria Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and Africa Centre for Excellence in Genomics (ACEGID).
ACEGID has the most advanced capabilities and is also a reference laboratory for the joint World Health Organisation (WHO) and Africa Centres for Disease Control COVID-19 Genome Sequencing Laboratory Network.
The Centre is one of those that conduct tests on COVID-19 variants and sequences released a statement on the 12th of May saying that they had informed the NCDC about the strain some weeks back.
It was discovered that the notification was sent to NCDC by Professor Christian Happi. The notification which was dated April 25, 2021, reads: “We have found five sequences of the India B.1.617 in the country, specifically in Edo and Osun states.
“What we have is the B1.617 from India. That is the variant they had but that variant has now evolved beyond the mutation that we identified.”
However, not all Nigerians got to know about the new variant until the centre released a statement, which was collaborated on May 13 by the Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chike Ihekweazu in a television interview conducted by Arise TV.
Ihekweazu explained that they had received information about the Indian strain from the centre, which is one of the NCDC partners in testing and sequencing the variants.
He added that Nigeria is not the only country with B.1617 strain. It has also been discovered in 44 other countries across the world.
“Yes, they informed us three weeks ago that there is a new strain in the country and we have communicated our observations and assessment to the Presidential Steering Committee which made the government give travel restrictions to three countries which include India, Turkey and Brazil,” he explained.
This was followed on the 13th of May with a Tweet from the NCDC DG Twitter handle @Chikwe_I: “While Nigeria’s #COVID19 cases have declined, we still face major risks.
“The detection of 3 cases of B.1.617 variant is a reminder to be cautious. GoN is still testing, vaccinating & restricted travel. Everyone needs to #TakeResponsibility. Pls, adhere to all preventive measures.’
The World Health Organization on the 13th of May also confirmed that Nigeria and Algeria hadreported the Indian variant of the coronavirus in the countries.
However, within the three weeks when NCDC was communicated about the presence of the variant to when they confirmed that the variant was in the country, there had been a lot of information flying around regarding the COVID-19 Indian variant.
However, while the claims about the COVID-19 Indian variant B.1617 strain was confirmed to be true, the claim about the B.1.1.138 COVID-19 Variant in Nigeria seems to be a misinformation.
Checks done on Google search, the website of the NCDC, Africa CDC and WHO did not turn up any variant of B.1.1.138 available in Nigeria.
Profile Check
One of the tweets, which circulated widely and also on WhatsApp was that of @woye1. His tweet about the new Indian COVID-19 variant in the country caught the attention of the reporter because it has a lot of alarming information.
The tweet reads: “Prepare for 3rd Covid-19 wave in Nigeria as scientists have found five sequences of the deadly India B.1.617 in Edo N60bn & Osun dancing states. From Redeemer’s Uni, a new B.1.1.138 variant has emerged in Nigeria that is creating havoc in Mauritius Island (don’t travel there)”.
In the Nigerian context, @woye1 can be attributed to being an influencer because of the large number of followers on Twitter and other social media handles. Hence, his tweets can be shared by his followers who may have taken it beyond Twitter as some of the messages seen on WhatsApp had the name of the Twitter handle.
Checking the tweet account with bot sentinel to analyze the behaviour of the Twitter account, the tool which analyses if an account is bot- like or human stated the Tweeter exhibits satisfactory tweet activities.
(The Nation)
