The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified Nigeria among 13 high-risk African countries for coronavirus.
The other countries on the
list include Algeria, Angola, Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,
Mauritius, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
A statement from WHO on
Friday said the identified African nations have direct links or a high volume
of travel to China.
“WHO has identified 13 top
priority countries (Algeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania,
Uganda and Zambia) which either have direct links or a high volume of travel to
China.
“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 organization will support all countries
in the region in their preparation efforts,” the WHO said in a statement.
“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,” added WHO Regional Director for Africa,
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti.
“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.”
As of 30 January 2020, there
were 7818 confirmed cases globally, with the vast majority in China, WHO
stated.