MAPUTO, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Madagascar has recorded its first coronavirus death, local media have reported.
According to reports, a 57-year-old medical officer at a hospital in the city of Toamasina, died Saturday night.
Taskforce spokeswoman Hanta Danielle Vololontiana disclosed in a televised statement that the victim had underlying conditions of diabetes and high blood pressure.
The record of the first death comes weeks after Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina launched COVID Organics (CVO), an organic herbal drink he claims can prevent or cure coronavirus patients.
World Health Organisation is yet to sanction the use of the drug, cautioning against the use of CVO without any medical supervision and cautioned against self-medication.
Meanwhile, in ACCRA, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye disclosed that the country was to receive quantities of Madagascar’s highly publicized mixture.
“I believe that a quantity might be made available to the country and we will ensure collaboration with FDA. They have to do some assessment and then we take it from there.”
“So, I will not be able to say whether it will be used or not. But I think they have made an offer and we can take a look at it,” he told a gathering of reporters at the Information Ministry.
Ghana’s confirmed Coronavirus cases stand at 5,735 with 1,754 recoveries and a death toll of 29.
In ABUJA, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has taken delivery of the Madagascar native formulation against the Coronavirus.
At an audience meeting with President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau who brought along with him the samples of the traditional medicine shared to African nations by Madagascar, Buhari said his position on herbal or traditional medicinal postulates had remained the same.
On his meeting with Buhari, Embalo said he had come to seek counsel from Buhari on his plan for a “government of national unity” and a proposed war against corruption in his country.
He said that his new government, formed following the country’s recent elections, require tremendous assistance from “big brother,” Nigeria to solve his country’s issues and problems.
Buhari restated the determination of Nigeria to keep West Africa politically stable and promised to support the new government in Guinea Bissau.
Buhari used the opportunity of the visit to praise the good work that the President of Niger Republic, Mahamadou Issoufou, who is the current Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is doing in the sub-region. — NNN-AGENCIES
