Skip to main content

WHO lists Nigeria, 12 others as top-risk African nations


The World Health Organisation has identified 13 high-risk African countries for coronavirus.
They are Algeria, Angola, Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
A statement from WHO said the identified African nations have direct links or a high volume of travel to China.
"WHO has identified 13 top priority countries (Algeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia) which either have direct links or a high volume of travel to China.
"To ensure rapid detection of the novel coronavirus, it is important to have laboratories which can test samples and WHO is supporting countries to improve their testing capacity. Since this is a new virus, there are currently only two referral laboratories in the African region which have the reagents needed to conduct such tests.
"However, reagent kits are being shipped to more than 20 other countries in the region, so diagnostic capacity is expected to increase over the coming days. Active screening at airports has been established in a majority of these countries and while they will be WHO first areas of focus, the organization will support all countries in the region in their preparation efforts,” the WHO said in a statement.
“It is critical that countries step up their readiness and in particular put in place effective screening mechanisms at airports and other major points of entry to ensure that the first cases are detected quickly,” added WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti.
“The quicker countries can detect cases, the faster they will be able to contain an outbreak and ensure the novel coronavirus does not overwhelm health systems.”
As yet, there are no confirmed cases of the potentially fatal virus on the African continent.
Ethiopian Minister of Health Lia Tadesse said four possible cases there have tested negative for 2019-nCoV, as has been the case elsewhere.
Angolan health minister Sílvia Lutucuta reports a new suspected case there, while Sudanese authorities previously said they were investigating two possible coronavirus infections.
China’s latest update on the coronavirus epidemic, issued at midnight Thursday, listed 213 fatalities with a new total of 9,692 confirmed cases. There were 15,238 suspected cases along with 113,579 close contacts under health monitoring, according to the National Health Commission.
WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Thursday.
The PHEIC is a designation for an “extraordinary event” with the potential for international disease spread, one that requires immediate international action and coordinated response to reduce the global public health risk.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Killings: Group demands resignation of Police IG

                              A human rights group, National Intervention Group of Nigeria, has called for the resignation of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, for alleged loss of morality to continue in office given his inability to tackle killings across the country. The convener of the group, Segun Akinloye, made this call on Tuesday at a press conference in Abuja on the state of the nation. Mr Akinloye said “the lives of Nigerians, even in Nigeria appears nowadays to be cheaper and more worthless than ever before witnessed or recorded in history.” He frowned at the powerlessness of the police to abate the killings, warning that Nigeria may be heading to division and eventual collapse if urgent steps are not taken. He made reference to the killings in Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Plateau and Kaduna St...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kano Hisbah Board destroys 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 m

                                   The Kano State Hisbah Board has seized and destroyed 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 million. In a statement released on Tuesday December 25th, the board’s Public Relations Officer, Adamu Yahaya, said that the cartons of beer were destroyed on Monday evening December 24th after interception at Kalebawa on Danbata Road in Dawakin Tofa area. “The Kano State Law No. 4 of 2004 has banned the manufacture and use of intoxicants in the state. Furthermore, an order was given by a magistrates’ court for us  to go ahead with the exercise,” the public relations officer said. The worth of a trailer load of beer is between N5.2 million and N5.5 million. The sale of beer and its consumption has been banned in Kano state.
Post a Comment
Read more

Girl, 16, is gang-raped by four men and dumped to slowly die on building site

  A schoolgirl was allegedly gang-raped and killed by four migrants who dumped her on a building site and left her to die.   Desiree Mariottini, 16, from Cisterna di Latina, Italy, was found dead after being drugged and raped in the construction site in the district of San Lorenzo in October 2018.   A witness claims that the 16-year-old girl went to the abandoned site used by homeless people to buy drugs from the four men.     Narcisa Leon, an Ecuadorian woman who squatted in the abandoned site, told the court that she found the victim lying motionless on a dirty mattress.   She had seen the schoolgirl with the four defendants earlier in the day.     She also said that one of the suspects, Mamadou Gara, confirmed in a conversation with her that they had given the victim a strong tranquiliser and that he had then had "sex with her".   The case is ongoing.   The four men, Yusif Salia, Mamadou Gara, Brian Minteh, and Chima Alinno, are ...
Post a Comment
Read more