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#Coronavirus: Ivory Coast tests Africa’s first patient

───   13:39 Tue, 28 Jan 2020

#Coronavirus: Ivory Coast tests Africa’s first patient | News Article

As reported by CNN, a 34-year-old female student became the first person to be tested for the virus in Africa.


The traveller, whose identity has been withheld for safety reasons, disembarked a flight from Beijing, at the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Saturday.

According to authorities, the student was pulled aside and quarantined after she displayed symptoms of the coronavirus.

Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene said, in a statement, that early observations lean towards pneumonia but she also displayed flu-like symptoms like coughing, sneezing and respiratory problems, which are red flags for coronavirus.

“Her general state is satisfactory. There are, at this stage, suspicions of a case of pneumonia tied to the coronavirus,” the statement read.

The current state of the woman has not yet been communicated by the country, and while China is doing everything it can to contain the virus, fears are growing that it could be a little too late.

What is the latest on the spread of the virus?

Latest updates coming from CNN report that the virus has already claimed more than 100 lives and recorded infections have skyrocketed to over 4 500 cases.

According to the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, these are the latest infection and fatality figures:


CountriesCasesDeaths
Mainland China4 515106
Hong Kong80
Macao50
Australia50
Cambodia10
Canada10
France30
Germany10
Japan40
Malaysia40
Nepal10
Singapore50
South Korea40
Sri Lanka10
Thailand80
Taiwan40
United States50
Vietnam20


Africa has not been included in this table because tests of the suspected patient have not yet been concluded.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a coronavirus is a family of viruses that “include the common cold, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).”

The world’s leading scientists have zoned in on Wuhan, a city in mainland China, to try and locate the source of the coronavirus. This is crucial in determining a vaccine appropriate for humans.

The Chinese government has tried, by all means, to lock down the city and cordon off all entry and exit points.


The South African



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