Covid-19: Nigerian variant does not affect ability to detect, trace infected persons

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): The Nigerian variant B1.525 of Covid-19 has important mutations in its spike protein but they do not affect the ability to detect or trace a person infected with the variant, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic).

The Health director-general said this is because existing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kits use multiple targets to detect variants even though that person can be asymptomatic.