The coronavirus was confirmed in the Chinese city of Wuhan on January 7, 2020. Cases have since been confirmed in over 80 countries across the globe.

The World Health Organisation, WHO, has since declared it a public health emergency of international dimensions. WHO chief Tedros Ghebereyesus said whiles China had a robust health system to detect and control, his outfit remained concerned about the virus entering country’s with weak systems. Almost all African governments have publicly put in place strict screening at points of entry especially airports. Cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Senegal and Nigeria. African airlines have cancelled scheduled flights to China except for Ethiopian Airlines.

NIGERIA

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari on Monday announced a coronavirus task force with the aim of helping control the virus which as at today had affected two persons.

“This action is in preparation for the unlikely but probable major outbreak of the disease in the country which will require a multi-sectoral inter-governmental approach as advised by the World Health Organization, WHO, similar to that adopted for the HIV epidemic in the last 2 decades,” the statement read.

It is led by the Secretary-General of the federation, Boss Mustapha; it has a national coordinator with seven sector ministers. The head of the National Disease Control Commission and a WHO rep are among other members. Rwanda, despite, having no confirmed case of coronavirus has moved to step up prevention measures from the epidemic that has affected all regional blocs of the continent except East Africa.

Known for its tourist appeal, authorities announced a number of tweaks to existing tourist protocols among others removing notice periods for tourists and tour operators and allowing for cancellation of bookings due to coronavirus-related issues. Meanwhile in the capital Kigali, some bus terminals had placed mobile hand washing sets for passengers to use before boarding transport.

Most African countries are screening passengers at airports whiles encouraging the public to observe basic prevention measures like washing hands regularly.

Egypt confirmed the first fatality due to the coronavirus in the country – the first reported death on the continent. The health ministry confirmed the case involved a 60-year-old German citizen admitted to a public hospital Friday, tested positive the next day and died on Sunday.

Having arrived from Germany a week ago, the tourist refused to be placed in an isolation unit before his condition deteriorated on Saturday with “acute pneumonia”.

Nigeria records second case, Ethiopian in UAE infected

Nigeria’s Health Minister on Monday recorded its second case of coronavirus. The unidentified patient is connected to the index case of February 27 involving an Italian in Lagos State. The current case is traced to Ogun State. Authorities have stressed that the patient has been put in isolation as tracing of other possible contacts continue.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Health confirmed over the weekend that an Ethiopian resident in the United Arab Emirates, UAE, had tested positive for the disease.

Meanwhile, PM Abiy Ahmed on Monday met with the COVID-19 Ministerial Committee to assess status of preparedness tasks undertaken nationally. Minister Tadesse provided a report on related activities since the announcement of COVID-19.

Nigeria acknowledges Dangote’s preparedness donation

Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari has acknowledged a donation from Africa’s richest man towards the country’s preparedness towards the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Hand in hand, standing shoulder to shoulder, we can confront our challenges as a country. This is a path for us all to follow as a people,” Buhari said in a statement.

The Aliko Dangote foundation, ADF, earlier in the week announced a 200 million naira donation to fight the virus in Nigeria. The country currently has only a confirmed case of an Italian national who arrived in Lagos weeks back.

A major chunk of the donation, N124million, was earmarked to support facilities to help prevent, assess and respond to health events at Point of Entry to ensure National Health Security.

“The donation was part of the Foundation’s cardinal objective of partnering with governments at all levels against the dreaded disease in Nigeria and the rest of Africa,” a top official of the foundation said.

DRC to quarantine Europeans, Chinese

The Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, will quarantine citizens of four countries when they arrive in the country, the Health Ministry has disclosed. The affected countries are Italy, France, Germany and China, where the outbreak started from. In a letter to the embassies of the affected countries, Health Minister Eteni Longondo said travellers from Italy, France, Germany and China with no coronavirus symptoms will be asked to self quarantine for 14 days whiles those with symptoms will be transferred to a government-run isolation facility.

This is part of efforts by the government aimed at prevention and or detection of the virus which has arrived in all regions of Africa except for East Africa as at Friday, March 6. The closest neighbour of DRC with a confirmed case is Cameroon, where two cases were reported on Friday. South Africa also confirmed its index case on Thursday.

Togo government confirms index case

The Togo government has confirmed that the country has recorded its first coronavirus case. In a statement issued via social media, the government stressed that its preparedness was in full gear. The said patient is a 42-year-old woman who is resident in the capital Lome along with her family. She entered Togo via land border of Sanvi Condji on March 2, 2020.

The statement added that her travel history showed that she had between 22 February till entering Togo been shuttling between Benin, Germany, France and Turkey. She has since been isolated as authorities move to identify all possible contacts. Meanwhile a crisis committee meeting to be led by President Faure Gnassingbe is scheduled for later today.

Egypt confirms 12 new cases

Egypt’s health ministry on Friday announced had detected 12 cases of new coronavirus among staff on board a cruise ship on the Nile River in the south of the country. The health ministry said in a statement that the 12 cases were detected in Egyptian employees on a cruise ship travelling from Aswan to Luxor, two tourist sites in Upper Egypt, “without showing any symptoms” of the disease.

The authorities were alerted after a Taiwanese tourist “of American origin” who had traveled on the boat was found to be the source of the spread of the disease, according to the joint statement with the World Health Organization (WHO). The 12 Egyptian employees suspected of being infected had been quarantined and tested positive for Covid-19 at the end of their two-week confinement.

Other tourists who came into contact with the Taiwanese tourist were also quarantined, according to the press release. Egypt which was the first country in Africa to report a case of coronavirus, had so far confirmed three cases including a Chinese man who has since recovered, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 15.

Cameroon confirms first case of coronavirus

Cameroon’s health minister Dr. Malachie Manaouda on Friday confirmed the first case of the coronavirus in the country. The victim has been identified as a 58-year-old French national who arrived in the country on February 24.

‘‘The case was placed in solitary confinement in th Care Center of the Yaounde Central Hospital for appropriate treatment,’‘ read part of the minister’s statement. Manaouda also reassured the country that government has put in place measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Kenya identifies high-risk areas

Kenya named two coastal towns and its capital Nairobi among the regions at high risk of coronavirus outbreak, according to local media reports. The border regions in the western and north-eastern parts of the country are also at risk, according to Kenya’s head of disease surveillance, Dr Daniel Lang’at.

Nairobi is named because of hosting the country’s main airport, while the coastal towns of Mombasa and Kilifi have a high influx of tourists. Kenya is yet to record any conformed cases of the coronavirus.

Major conferences cancelled over coronavirus

Three major conferences in annual conferences in Africa have been cancelled with organizers citing the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that has only recently arrived in sub-Saharan Africa.

The three are as follows:

• The high-level ministerial conference organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, (UN-ECA). It was scheduled to be held between 18 to 24 March in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
• The Next Einstein Forum schedules to take place next week in Kenya’s capital Nairobi has also been postponed to a later date. The forum, typically attended by more than 2,000 people from more than 79 countries was scheduled for 9 to 13 March.
• The two-day Africa CEO forum which was scheduled to be held early next week (9 to 10 March) in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, has also been postponed to a later date.

“Following global health concerns pertaining to the COVID-19 coronavirus and the need for added vigilance, upon consultation with partners, the ECA will postpone all public meetings until further notice,” an ECA statement read in part.

South Africa records first case

South Africa’s health minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize on Thursday confirmed that the country had recorded its first case of the coronavirus. ‘‘This morning, Thursday March 5, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that a suspected case of COVID-19 has tested positive,’‘ the minister tweeted.

South Africa also said its nationals who had tested positive on the cruise ship Diamond Princess ‘ave now tested negative and will shortly be making their way home’. The pair who initially tested positive for coronavirus had been hospitalised in Japan after being taken ashore from the cruise ship where they worked.

South Africa, which last week said it would evacuate its nationals from the Chinese city of Wuhan, adding that those plans are at an ‘advanced stage’. “A total of 184 South Africans have indicated their desire to be repatriated,” it adds in a statement. They are said to be mostly “students, teachers and other professionals”.

The Diamond Princess was first quarantined in January when a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive for coronavirus.

Cases more than double in Algeria

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Algeria has more than doubled, after more than nine new cases were registered on Wednesday night. The North African country now has 17 confirmed cases. Algeria’s health ministry said nine new cases were registered from a family living in the northern Blida district, some 30km (20 miles) from the capital, Algiers.

According to Reuters, the family which accounts for 16 of the 17 cases last month hosted a man and his daughter based in France who were tested positive for coronavirus after flying back to France.

“Mobilisation of health teams remains at its hightest level,” the health ministry said in a statement, adding that government has put medical staff at hospitals, mainly in Blida and nearby towns, on alert to cope with new cases.

Tunisia suspends ferry services to Italy

Tunisia’s health minister Abdelatif el-Mekki said on Wednesday the country will suspend passenger ferry services to northern Italy, as one of the measures aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus. The news follows Monday’s confirmation of a first case in the country; a Tunisian national who had recently arrived from Italy by sea.

Other measures taken by authorities include a separate terminal at Tunis airport for flights from northern Italy, which keeps passengers apart before a screening process. Foreign football fans have also been banned from attending games with local clubs. Two Tunisian teams are scheduled to play against clubs from Morocco and Egypt in the coming days.

Senegal records two news cases

Senegal on Wednesday announced its third and fourth cases of coronavirus bringing the country’s tally to four. A statement from the Health Ministry said the two new cases had been confirmed by the Institut Pasteur de Dakar. One of the new patients is connected with the second confirmed case. The 68-year-old French national is the wife of the patient diagnosed on Tuesday. The other patient is a 33-year-old English national who arrived in Dakar on February 24 from London.

On Monday, Senegal announced the first case of coronavirus in the country, becoming the second in sub-Saharan Africa after one was confirmed in Nigeria last week. The index patient was a French man who lives in Senegal and came back from a skiing holiday in France on Feb. 26 on an Air Senegal flight, Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr told reporters.

Africa Basketball League postponed

The Basketball Africa League, which was supposed to start next week in Senegal, has been postponed over the coronavirus outbreak. The cancellation was done after advice from the Senegalese government, which on Monday confirmed that a second person had tested positive for the coronavirus. 12 teams including Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Tunisia were scheduled to compete. The league is being organised in partnership of America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).

Senegal, which is hosting the competition, has confirmed two cases of coronavirus, bringing the total confirmed cases in Africa to 12. The other countries affected are Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia.

Tanzania bans shaking hands

Tanzania’s football federation (TFF) followed the health ministry and president’s lead, banning handshakes between players before the start of a match. The TFF said it was following advice issued by the ministry of health as part of measures to stop the spread of coronavirus.

On Tuesday, Tanzania’s State House shared photos showing Tanzanian President John Magufuli exchanging a foot greeting with an opposition leader.

Senegal records second case

Senegal recorded its second case of COVID-19 the ministry of health confirmed in a statement late Tuesday. Authorities said the patient was a French national who arrived in Dakar on 29 Feb from Paris. This case is similar to the first which was recorded on Monday also of a French national resident in Senegal but having flown in from France.

Nigeria is only other sub-Saharan African country with a case involving an Italian national who flew into Lagos before proceeding to an adjoining state. He is however in quarantine at a facility run by the Lagos State government.

Zimbabwe’s Health Minister says the country will deport foreigners who enter the country without medical clearance from their respective countries. Minister Obediah Moyo was quoted by the state-owned Herald Newspaper as saying all visitors without medical clearance from government hospitals in their respective countries will be deported.

So far only West Africa in the sub-Saharan Africa region has recorded two cases in Nigeria and Senegal. Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco have all recorded cases but they fall under the Middle East and North Africa region under WHOclassification.

Algeria confirms two more coronavirus cases

Algeria on Sunday confirmed two new cases of coronavirus infections, in a 53-year-old woman and her 24-year-old daughter. The victims have been placed in isolation in Blida province south of the capital, Algiers, according to the health ministry, adding that the pair had hosted a man and his daughter from France who tested positive for coronavirus after their return.

Algeria now has three confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The country’s first case was confirmed last week in an Italian national, who was subsequently deported to Italy.