Uganda will suspend flights to and from India after midnight on Saturday amid the coronavirus surge in the South Asian nation, the country's health ministry said, two days after neighbouring Kenya did the same.

Also today, a senior Ugandan health official said the country had detected the Indian variant of the novel coronavirus, igniting fears the East African nation could suffer a resurgence of cases just when its outbreak has waned.

The head of the African Union's disease control body John Nkengasong told a news conference on Thursday that the raging state of the pandemic in India was a wake-up call for Africa that its governments and citizens must not let their guards down.