Nigeria on Friday confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country, raising fears of how the disease could wreak havoc in Africa’s most populous nation and across the continent.
The case was confirmed by the Federal Ministry of Health and was the first confirmed infection in sub-Saharan Africa.
The health ministry said the patient was an Italian citizen who returned on Feb. 25 to Lagos, the country’s largest city, after visiting Milan. The Nigerian government said in a statement that the unnamed patient was “clinically stable,” and did not have “serious symptoms” and was being treated at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.
“I wish to assure all Nigerians that have we have been beefing up our preparedness capabilities since the first confirmation of cases in China, and we will use all the resources made available by the government to respond to this case,” Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Nigeria’s minister of health, said in a statement.
The steady global march of the new coronavirus outbreak transformed into a fierce gallop over the past 48 hours, as a dozen countries recorded their first confirmed cases and the world’s leading health official warned of a coming pandemic.
“This virus has pandemic potential,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization on Thursday. “We are actually in a very delicate situation in which the outbreak can go in any direction based on how we handle it.”
The warning came hours before the first case was confirmed on Friday in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
More than 83,000 people in at least 47 countries have been infected. More new cases have been recently reported outside China, where the outbreak began in December, than within in the country. China enforced a lock down of700 million people to control the spread of the virus.
Japan closed its schools for at least a month. Iran canceled Friday Prayers in major cities. Saudi Arabia barred pilgrims from its holiest sites.
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