Morocco confirms first coronavirus death

Morocco’s health ministry confirmed on Tuesday the country’s first death from coronavirus.

The dead patient, who entered Morocco from Italy’s Bologna, is an 89-year-old Moroccan woman suffering from respiratory and heart diseases, the ministry said in a statement.

She was living in Casablanca.

Morocco cancelled all trips to and from Italy and banned fans from attending football matches, cancelled events involving foreign travellers and gatherings of more than 1,000 people as precautionary measures to avert an outbreak of the virus.

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Morocco’s overall number of new infections is now up to three.

At least one of the other cases involves a Moroccan residing in Italy. According to the health ministry, the man returned to Morocco without experiencing any symptoms. After suffering from diarrhoea, he went to a hospital for consultation.

After tests, authorities confirmed that the man is carrying the virus. The 104 people who made contact with the man on the flight back to Morocco are under surveillance, each must take their temperatures twice a day. Those who are at risk of being infected are in quarantine, the Minister of Health Khalid Ait Taleb announced on Tuesday.

(CGTN)