Headquarters of the AFRICAN UNION in Ethiopia. Photo: Clemente Dos Santos
ADDIS ABABA, March 12 (NNN-ANGOP) — The African Union (AU) warned of the need to buy more tests and other emergency medical supplies to respond to the Covid-19 epidemic, at a time when the continent has reported more than 90 cases in 10 countries.
“More emergency medical supplies, including personal protective equipment, must be bought and stored to respond to requests from Member States, which arrive every day at the second,” said the director of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (AfricaCDC ) of the AU.
John Nkengasong was speaking at a press conference at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, after authorities in Burkina Faso announced, at the end of Monday, the existence of two cases of infection with the new coronavirus.
It is, according to the Burkinabe Ministry of Health, a couple who returned to the country on Feb 24 after a trip to France and were quarantined in a hospital in the capital Ouagadougou.
A third person who has been in contact with the couple is under medical observation.
With the cases recorded in Burkina Faso, there are now 10 African countries – six of which in sub-Saharan Africa – that report declared cases of the disease – namely South Africa, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia and Togo.
Most of the more than 90 registered cases are concentrated in Egypt.
Nkengasong listed measures being taken by AfricaCDC to contain the spread of the virus on the continent, adding that, of the 55 countries in the organization, 43 states are now able to carry out laboratory tests to detect the disease. — NNN-ANGOP
