Health

4 more African countries report first coronavirus cases, bringing total to 26

Brazzaville, Mar 15 (efe-epa).- The coronavirus outbreak has continued to spread in Africa with new cases in Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles, Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic on Sunday bringing the number of affected countries in the continent to 26.

Equatorial Guinea announced that a 42-year-old woman had tested positive for Covid-19 after returning from a seven-day trip to Spain.

She had spent time in the municipality of Móstoles, in the Community of Madrid, according to a statement released late on Saturday by the ministry of health.

The woman arrived back in her home country in the city of Malabo on 13 March on a CEIBA Intercontinental flight and was placed in quarantine.

The small central African country, home to around 4.5 million inhabitants, reported its first case on Saturday night.

A Congolese citizen, aged 50, who had returned from Paris to Brazzaville on 1 March on an Ethiopian Airlines flight was confirmed to have the disease and was also in isolation.

Communication minister Thierry Lezin Moungalla in a statement the patient had travelled to Amsterdam to visit family, his French wife and six-year-old daughter.

The Congolese government said it has ensured the tracking of people who may have had contact with the patients and urged all passengers who shared the same flight to identify themselves, as well as anyone arriving from a high-risk country in recent weeks.

The Central African Republic also confirmed its first case of coronavirus on Saturday night, after a 74-year-old Italian resident in the country who had recently travelled to the city of Milan tested positive.

The patient returned to the central African country on 7 March and showed symptoms of Covid-19 a day later, according to a statement from the World Health Organization.

Seychelles’ announced there were two positive cases in the island nation, two citizens who had returned from Italy on 11 March.

The ministry of health said in a statement on Saturday night that the patients were transported directly from the airport to a quarantine centre to limit their contact with others.

One of the patients had mild respiratory difficulties, it added.

At least 10 other African countries have registered their first cases of Covid-19 since Friday, including Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland, Ghana, Gabon, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Mauritania.

Most of the cases reported so far on the continent have been foreign nationals or local people arriving from abroad, especially from Italy and other European countries where the epicentre of the pandemic has been transferred.

The new coronavirus originated in Wuhan, the capital city of the central Chinese province of Hubei, in December, and has since spread around the world.

It has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, with more than 132,000 global cases in 123 countries and territories and deaths exceeding 5,000. EFE-EPA

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