Coronavirus: 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.

 

 

– Punch

Delia Innoma's avatar

About Delia Innoma

Delia Innoma is a prolific writer, promoter, artist manager with full professional proficiency in English, German and Igbo languages. She studied accounting and computer programming at the Institute of Management and Technology Enugu and Germany respectively. Delia is also a devoted mother of two and she founded the Diamond Celebrities Magazine. Her sense of responsibility and commitment to the Christian faith are essential forces driving her daily activities.

One Response to “Coronavirus: WHO lists Nigeria, 12 others as top-risk African nations”

  1. Unknown's avatar

    Pls for the safety of people and to prevent lost of lives, I suggest those countries with high volume of travel to China should be restricted from coming back to their countries for those over there already in order not to affect others , my suggestion please information should be pass through even to their president

Leave a reply to Udeozor courage .N Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.