On 25 November 2021, the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) announced the detection of a new variant of the SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, following genomic sequencing. This variant was labelled as lineage B.1.1.529.

On December 22, 2021, Africa CDC IPG handed over the MinION sequencing machine to Ministry of Health and Social Services, Namibia

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, 22 June 2021 – Today, the Africa CDC and ACEGID have started a continent-wide training series on SARS-CoV-2 sequencing. The comprehensive hands-on training aims to strengthen Member States capacity to track the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern