Nigeria confirms first coronavirus case in sub-Saharan Africa - MW

The first confirmed case of coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa was reported by Nigeria, due to the deepening of global stock market losses amid investor alarms regarding a global pandemic. potential.

The case is an Italian citizen working in Nigeria and returned from Italy on February 25, said Nigerian Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire. The patient is clinically stable, has no serious symptoms and is being administered to the infectious hospital in Yaba, Lagos, said Super Ehanire.

This case is only the third confirmed on the African continent, which intrigued health professionals when it has close ties to China.

Coronavirus: the first case in Wales is the next two cases in the United Kingdom bringing the British total to 19 - the latest update.
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Earlier this month, officials from the World Health Organization warned that a porous border, a constant flow of tourists and a poor health care system meant that the risk of an epidemic across the Africa was very high. and raise significant concerns about the capacity of the fragile health system to cope.

The past few weeks have been used to strengthen test regimes, isolation facilities and public messaging.

Subsequently, Nigeria Nigeria has significantly improved its ability to handle the onset of a major pandemic since the 2014 Ebola terrorist attack in West Africa, said F Fadeade Ogunola, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Lagos, wrote on The Convers website. One of the lessons learned from protecting the country from Ebola announced the measures taken since the news of the coronavirus epidemic fell.

There is anxiety in many countries even if the protections are strengthened. In Kenya, there was a brutal reaction against the government, which authorized the first direct flight from China in two weeks.

In other developments on Friday:

• Authorities have confirmed 20 new cases in France in the past 24 hours, after President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that the country was on the brink of an epidemic. In Italy, the death toll rose to 17.
• About 1,000 people have been quarantined in the largest German state, with the number of confirmed cases in the largest economy in Europe rising to over 50.
• Lithuania and New Zealand have reported their first confirmed cases.
• The first case was confirmed in Wales, bringing the total number in England to 19.
• China has registered 44 new deaths and 327 new confirmed cases, as the spread of the virus continues to slow in the country.
• South Korea has announced 571 new cases, bringing the total number to 2,337, by far the largest outside China.
• California health officials say they are looking for 8,400 people looking for symptoms after arriving on domestic flights.
• Australian doctors have warned that the public health system could be overwhelmed by a pandemic one day after the government launched an emergency response program.

The spread of the virus prompted investors to take decisive action on Friday when the global market fell sharply again. The Dow Jones suffered the largest losses on a day Thursday, down 1,190 points, or 4.4%, analysts warning that the virus could cause as much damage as the global financial crisis. 2008/09. Stocks followed in Asian trading on Friday as crude Brent crude was ready to drop below $ 50 a barrel for the first time in four years.

The coronavirus now looks like a pandemic. Norihiro Fujito, investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, said the market can cope even when there is a big risk as long as we can see the end of the tunnel. But for now, no one can say how long it will last and how serious it will be.

Others warn that the impact of the Virus virus will also far outweigh the impact of the US-China trade war, while US Federal Reserve forecasts will cut interest rates to cushion the blow. Cryptocurrency market.

Donald Trump created an optimistic tone for the second day of handling the virus, saying Thursday evening that US agencies are doing a good job, and in the United States and China, Covid -19 business has fallen.

But where Dow leads, the Asian markets followed, with the Australian, Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean markets all suffering heavy losses.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to protect the economy when the Japanese island of Hokkaido declared a state of emergency and called on all residents to stay home this weekend.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with 190 million inhabitants and numerous air links across the continent and beyond.

Given recent developments worldwide and in Africa, it is unlikely that we will import COVID-19 into South Africa, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Research. Meanwhile, South Africa said the two citizens working on the Princess Diamond cruise ship had the virus and would remain in Japan for treatment.

In a separate statement Thursday evening, South Africa said it had planned to evacuate more than 130 citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the epidemic began. He doesn't say when it will happen.

There are tens of thousands of African students in China, with a large community in Wuhan. Relatives have complained of having to deal with soaring prices, a shortage and severe psychological stress.

Egypt had the first case of Covid-19 in Africa, which was announced on February 14. Algeria announced it had a case on Tuesday, an Italian adult arrived in the country on February 17. This prompted the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, to warn that the continent's window of opportunity must prepare for the closed coronavirus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that the disease is at a critical point globally and that it could become uncontrollable if the affected countries do not stop quickly.

MW