A medical worker writes down a patient's dietary information on a colleague's protective suit inside Leishenshan hospital, a makeshift hospital in Wuhan, China, February 16. China Daily via REUTERS
Ivory Coast has confirmed its first case of coronavirus which has killed over 3,700 people across the world.
In a statement, the country’s health ministry said a 45-year-old man who recently stayed in Italy imported the disease into the country.
According to the ministry, the patient is being taken care of at an Abidjan hospital and his clinical status is stable.
It added that all who had contact with the patient have been identified and the authorities were monitoring them
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The Democratic Republic of Congo also confirmed its first case of the virus on Wednesday. The patient, said to be a Belgian citizen, had reportedly been in Congo for some days.
Eteni Longondo, health minister of the country, said the man and others with him have been placed in quarantine. He urged residents not to panic and that they should maintain cleanliness.
”I would like to announce to the Congolese population that we diagnosed this morning the first case of coronavirus. It has been discovered in a Belgian national who has come to stay here for a few days,” Longondo said.
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“What I’d like to tell people is not to panic.”
More than 100 cases have been confirmed on the continent.
Before the spread of coronavirus to Congo, the country had been battling with Ebola since August 2018. More than 2,200 people have died from Ebola with about 1200 more were infected.
The country is currently having a respite from the disease as the last Ebola patient was discharged on March 3.
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Health officials say there have been no new cases in the past two weeks.
Matshidiso Moeti, regional director of the World Health Organisation, praised the “tireless efforts” of agencies in the fight against the outbreak.
He, however, called for caution and vigilance.
“It is not yet the end of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We must stay vigilant in the coming weeks and beyond,” he said.
For the epidemic to be declared over, there have to be no new cases reported for 42 days – equivalent to two cycles of 21 days which is the maximum incubation period for the virus.
1 comments
What is it about these African countries that allows wave after wave of infectious diseases to sweep through the population. First malaria then ebola and now the coronavirus virus threatens the population. Medical scientists need to look at the common factor between these three diseases and then pay attention to them