The COVID-19 Pandemic and Explaining Outcomes in Africa: Could Genomic Variation Add to the Debate?

ABSTRACT

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of COVID-19, emanated from the Wuhan Province in China and rapidly spread across the globe causing extensive morbidity and mortality rate, and affecting the global economy and livelihoods. Contrary to early predictions of "body bags" across Africa, the African COVID-19 pandemic was marked by apparent low case numbers and an overall mortality rate when compared with the other geographical regions. Factors used to describe this unexpected pattern included a younger population, a swifter and more effective national health policy, limited testing capacities, and the possibility of inadequate reporting of the cases, among others. However, despite genomics contributing to interindividual variations in many diseases across the world, there are inadequate genomic and multiomics data on COVID-19 in Africa that prevent richer transdisciplinary discussions on the contribution of genomics to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. To invite future debates on comparative studies of COVID-19 genomics and the pandemic spread around the world regions, this expert review evaluates the reported frequency distribution of genetic variants in candidate genes that are likely to affect COVID-19 infection dynamics/disease outcomes. We propose here that genomic variation should be considered among the many factors determining the COVID-19 infection and its outcomes in African populations and across the world.