234 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 21 African countries as Namibia, Mauritania, Sudan, Cote D’Ivoire, Eswatini, Guinea, Rwanda, Gabon and Ghana report first cases
Namibia on Saturday reported its first two cases of the COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus.
Namibia’s minister of health Kalumbi Shangula said a couple who arrived from Spain both tested positive to the virus and have been quarantined.
On Saturday evening, there were at least 234 confirmed cases of coronavirus across the second most populous continent, according to virus tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins.
Mauritania, in the northwest of the region, reported its first case of Covid-19 on Friday, an expatriate who traveled from Europe on March 9, according to the Ministry of Health while in central Africa, Rwanda’s health ministry confirmed the country’s first infection, a male Indian national who arrived from Mumbai on March 8.
Elsewhere, there were new cases in the West Africans of Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire.
In all, at least 93 people had tested positive for coronavirus in Egypt, 38 in South Africa, 37 in Algeria, 18 in Tunisia, 17 in Morocco, 10 in Senegal, 2 in Cameroon, 2 in Burkina Faso, 2 in Ghana, 2 in Nigeria, 2 in Namibia, 2 in Democratic Republic of Congo, 1 in Ethiopia, 1 in Gabon, 1 in Kenya, 1 in Rwanda, 1 in Togo, 1 in Guinea, 1 in Eswatini, 1 in Sudan and 1 in Cote d’Ivoire.
With the virus spreading fast, these figures were likely to change by the hours.
Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.
