Health authorities in La Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa, have confirmed testing a woman who travelled from Beijing, China, to Abidjan for the deadly coronavirus.
According to the statement released by Cote d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, the 34-year-old woman who has lived in China for the past five years, had shown flu-like symptoms such as coughing, sneezing and difficulty in breathing before boarding the plane to Abidjan.
The woman was moved to an isolated location on arrival at the airport in Abidjan and is currently under medical observation, said the ministry.
Authorities believe it is a case of pneumonia and not coronavirus, but the final diagnosis will make things clearer.
“Her general state is satisfactory. There are, at this stage, suspicions of a case of pneumonia tied to the coronavirus,” the ministry said.
If confirmed, it will be the first case of the deadly virus in Africa.
The outbreak of the viral infection in Wuhan China has spread to over 2,000 people and killed 56 in the past few weeks.
Currently known as 2019-nCoV, the virus is understood to be a new strain of coronavirus not previously identified in humans.
Since the outbreak began in Wuhan, several African countries have introduced extra screening on flights arriving from China.
Ghana’s Ministry of Health in an alert signed by the sector minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the health sector had increased surveillance at points of entry, especially the Kotoka International Airport.
“Passengers from China will undergo enhanced screening procedures including the administration of health questionnaire,” he said.
Ghana Envoy
Meanwhile, Ghana’s Ambassador to China, Edward A. Boateng, has announced the African Diplomatic Corps will meet with the World Health Organization to deliberate on the necessary protocols needed to be taken with regard to the over 4,600 African students in Wuhan and ultimately all Africans at the epicentre of the virus in Wuhan.
“We at the Ghana Embassy, Beijing, take the well-being of all Ghanaians seriously and are monitoring the situation,” he added.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri