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Coronavirus Spread: WHO Lists Nigeria Among High Risk Countries

Coronavirus Spread: WHO Lists Nigeria Among High Risk Countries

The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday listed Nigeria among 13 African countries identified as high-risk for the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

A statement from WHO said the identified African countries have direct links or a high volume of travel to China.

The other countries listed are Algeria, Angola, Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

On the same day, the federal government announced the establishment of a Coronavirus Preparedness Group to mitigate the impact of the virus should it find its way into the country.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said: “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 organisation will support all countries in the region in their preparation efforts.

“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.

“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.”

There are no confirmed cases of the potentially fatal virus on the African continent yet.

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