COVID-19 in Africa: Nigeria, South Africa

By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has found its way to Africa and to date, 34 of the 54 countries in the African continent have reported cases–Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa,

Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Seychelles, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Gabon, Guinea,

Mauritania, Rwanda, Ghana, Sudan, Liberia, Benin, Tanzania, Somalia, Djibouti, Zambia, Mauritius

and Gambia.

Deaths have been reported in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Burkina.

South Africa has reported one of the highest totals in Africa so far. As of 19 March 2020, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirms 34 new COVID-19 cases bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 150 people, the majority of whom are based in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces respectively. Of the 34 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, the majority are imported and two are locally transmitted. Contact tracing of all persons that the patients might have come into contact with is underway.

In the continents most populous country, Nigeria, the NCDC reported four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Thursday, bringing the country total to 12.

All the four new cases are from Lagos. One had a travel history to the UK; one to France, 3rd case is a contact to one of the previously confirmed cases; 4th case had no history of travel.

Egypt has reported the most cases in Africa with 256 to date.