Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia announced Monday that they are among dozens of countries around the world reporting positive coronavirus cases as the COVID-19 outbreak spreads beyond China. The Moroccan Ministry of Health said its confirmed case was a Moroccan citizen with ties to Italy who is being treated in an…
Two South African citizens working aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship are being treated in Japan after testing positive for the coronavirus, the government’s health ministry said. Dr. Lwazi Manzi, speaking to South African media on Friday, said the two were among 3,711 passengers and crew who were quarantined aboard…
Nigeria has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus, according to a statement from the Federal Health Ministry issued early Friday morning. The patient was identified in Lagos State, a coastal area along the Gulf of Guinea, said health minister Osagie Ehanire. It is home to the city of…
Algeria has confirmed the first case of coronavirus within its borders according to health minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid, who announced the finding to the nation on state-owned ENTV Tuesday evening. The patient is an Italian citizen who arrived in the country on February 17 and has been placed in isolation, the…
Officials in Mauritius held an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss how to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, ultimately deciding to deny entry to anyone who has been in South Korea or the three northern Italian provinces most affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The outcome of the meeting, led by…
Italy has agreed to accept nearly 300 Mediterranean Sea migrants stranded aboard the Ocean Viking rescue ship, but the country’s interior minister says they have to go in quarantine along with the ship’s crew as the country deals with a large cluster of deadly coronavirus cases. The ship operated by…
Three Africans have been named as special envoys on the coronavirus, as the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed growing concern Friday over the COVID-19 spread in Iran, South Korea and beyond the borders of China. The three envoys will serve to provide strategic advice and high-level political advocacy and engagement…
More than 500 leaders have gathered for the Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend, among them the presidents of Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad to lead discussions on the situation in the Sahel. Yet this year, it’s the global coronavirus outbreak that has taken center stage. The latest numbers…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
With the world’s focus on new coronavirus COVID-19, the head of the World Health Organization is headed to Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday to assess the Ebola situation and the country’s health system. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus plans to meet with President Felix Tshisekedi and his senior advisers to…
The sound of a US$4 billion loss to the African continent because of China’s coronavirus outbreak is sobering, but that’s the estimate from one expert report that warns of financial losses if 2019nCoV continues to spread – and those losses are possible even without a single case ever being confirmed…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
A team of World Health Organization experts left for China on Sunday, as WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the world must remain vigilant as public health officials assess what he described as some troubling trends of the coronavirus. “The 2019nCoV spread outside China appears to be slow…
So far, there are no confirmed cases of the coronavirus on the African continent, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday. Countries including Botswana and Sudan have isolated and investigated some people for testing, but have seen those results all come back negative. Meanwhile, possible…
A clinical trial of a vaccine that researchers hoped would prevent HIV was stopped by its organizers, according to a statement Monday from The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. “This action was taken because an independent…
South Africa, although hailed as one of the most prosperous economies on the African continent, remains a country of missed opportunities. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) once again made this clear in its consultations with the Treasury, urging the government to implement reforms to tackle weak growth as well as…
WHO held its executive board meeting in Geneva on Monday, with Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, reappointed to her position. Yet much of the meeting focused on the 2019nCov outbreak, which was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on Thursday. China’s latest update…