Health
Coronavirus: Nigeria And 12 Other Countries Listed As High-Risk African Countries
Nigeria and12 other countries have been named by the World Health Organization as high-risk for Coronavirus by the
So, Nigeria, Algeria, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Angola, DR Congo, and Ivory Coast.
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“WHO has identified 13 top priority countries (Algeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia. Others are Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia). These 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.
“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”.
The World Health Organization is already beefing up preparations in the African region to implement recommendations as stated by the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee. The faster Coronavirus is detected, the faster it can be contained. This makes sure it doesn’t affect the health systems of the affected countries.