Ethiopia confirms its first case of coronavirus

Ethiopia has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus, the country’s public health institute said on Friday.

Takele Banti, the Mayor of the Capital Addis Ababa, tweeted that a Japanese citizen was the person affected.

“We should avoid meetings and hand contacts,” the mayor wrote on Twitter.

Similarly, Kenya, Ghana and Gabon, also on Friday reported their first confirmed cases of infection with the new coronavirus.

In East Africa, Kenya reported one case on Friday, while in West Africa, Ghana reported two cases just as Gabon said it had logged one case.

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This, however, raised the total number of African countries affected by the pandemic to 15.

However, experts had considered Africa to be at high risk in relation to the coronavirus due the continent’s close economic ties with China where the disease outbreak originated in December 2019.

The continent’s outbreak has so far been limited compared with those in Asia or Europe.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation recorded 129 cases of COVID-19 in 12 of Africa’s 54 countries, with three casualties in Northern Africa, compared to more than 125,000 confirmed cases globally.

(Reuters/NAN)