NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA
More African nations confirmed their first cases of the coronavirus and
shut borders amid fears of the disease’s impact on fragile health systems, as
Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma pledged to donate over 1
million testing kits to the continent.
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| Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma |
Thirty African countries - more than
half the continent - are now treating nearly 400 patients with coronavirus,
after Tanzania, Liberia, Benin and Somalia said they registered their first
cases.
Africa had until recently been spared
the rapid spread of COVID-19, which has infected at least 180,000 people
worldwide and caused over 7,000 deaths. But health experts are concerned the
continent’s often dilapidated health infrastructure will struggle to cope as
cases mount.
“We cannot ignore the potential risk
to Africa and assume this continent of 1.3 billion people will blissfully
escape the crisis. The world cannot afford the unthinkable consequences of a
COV-19 pandemic in Africa,” Ma’s foundation said in a statement.
The foundation will send 1.1 million
testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 protective suits and face shields to
Ethiopia for distribution to Africa’s 54 nations, it said.
Earlier on Monday, the World Bank
said it had committed $60 million to Kenya to help the East African nation
battle the outbreak.
Some countries on the continent, such
as conflict-hit Somalia, depend on donors to support basic public health
facilities.
Somalian Health Minister Fawziya
Abikar Nur said the ministry had quarantined and tested four Somalis who came
from China last week, and one had tested positive for the respiratory disease.
International flights to Somalia were suspended for two weeks, the aviation
minister said.
In West Africa, the small and
impoverished nation of Liberia announced its first case. Liberia was devastated
by a 2014 Ebola epidemic that killed 4,000 people, and its healthcare system
has remained underfunded despite promises of investment.
Benin, considered a relatively stable
democracy in the turbulent West African region, also announced its first case.
The Health Ministry said the Beninois national was being held in an isolation
ward in the capital after returning from Belgium and Burkina Faso on March 11.
The Health Ministry in the East
African nation of Tanzania also confirmed its first case, a Tanzanian woman who
had traveled to Denmark, Sweden and Belgium. She had her temperature taken at
the airport but had no fever and was allowed to pass, but later felt unwell at
her hotel, the ministry said.
Also on Monday, Rwanda, Burkina Faso,
Ethiopia, Senegal and Cameroon all reported more cases and South African
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said his nation, which has 62 cases so far, may
need to raid other government departments for funds to fight the disease. He did
not provide any figures.
Many African nations, including some
without reported cases, have ordered tougher control measures, including bans
on public gatherings, halting flights and closing schools and universities.
In northern Africa, Tunisia said it
would suspend international flights and close its land border in an effort to
contain the spread of the virus.
Botswana, in southern Africa, said on
Monday it would bar entry to travelers from 18 high-risk countries, including
China, Britain, the United States, Iran, France and Italy.
In West Africa, Senegal said it would
suspend flights to and from France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Portugal, as well
as Tunisia and Algeria, for a period of 30 days.
Ivory Coast said it would bar entry
to travelers from countries with over 100 cases, although Ivorian citizens and
residents would be allowed to return if they went into quarantine for 14 days.
It also closed schools, nightclubs and cinemas and banned gatherings of over 50
people, according to a national security council statement.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second-largest
nation, joined the growing list of countries that closed schools for two weeks,
suspended all large gatherings and canceled all sports events, Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed’s office said.
Government buses will give people
free rides to curb overcrowding in the public transport system, a statement
said.
In Central Africa, Congo Republic
said it would suspend all flights from high-risk countries from Thursday.
Neighboring Gabon reduced the number of flights from abroad to one a week per
airline and ordered restaurants to close, barring takeout and delivery.
Nigeria’s Health Ministry said the
country, Africa’s most populous, had strengthened contact tracing, stockpiled
reagents used in test kits and increased testing capacity.
Also on Monday, Kenyan police raided
a clinic alleged to be selling fake coronavirus testing kits. Police detained
staff and locked the facility, witnesses told Reuters journalists at the scene,
after it had been advertising testing kits online. - Reuters
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