Precautions are being taken in Africa to avoid further spread of the coronavirus, although there are currently no confirmed cases on the continent.
Air Tanzania announced last week that its new scheduled flights to China, due to start later this month, will be postponed due to the coronavirus.
A statement from the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa said preparedness efforts on the continent were to be up-scaled. The organisation has identified 13 top priority countries that either have direct links or a high volume of travel to China. They are Algeria, Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
In mainland China there were 2 831 confirmed new cases from February 2-3.
This brings the total count of confirmed cases in China to 17 238 (according to a report released by WHO on February 3).
The first death from the virus outside China has been confirmed in Cambodia – bringing the global death toll to 362 as of yesterday (February 3). CNN reports that today the figure has risen to above 400.
