Africa on alert after Kenya, Ethiopia report suspected coronavirus cases
- Student quarantined in Nairobi had arrived from Guangzhou after spending time in Wuhan, where the outbreak started
- Four more patients were isolated after travelling from China to Addis Ababa
Airports across Africa are on high alert after a passenger arriving in Kenya on Tuesday was quarantined with coronavirus symptoms, and four travellers were isolated in Ethiopia – bringing the number of suspected cases on the continent to six.
Kenya Airways confirmed the incident in a statement, saying health officials at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport had quarantined the passenger “as a precautionary measure”.
Meanwhile, four Ethiopian nationals have been placed in quarantine after they arrived at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport from China. Three of them were students who had been studying at universities near Wuhan, according to Lia Tadesse, state minister of health.
The death toll from the pneumonia-like virus reached 106 on Tuesday, with the total number of confirmed cases now at more than 4,600 worldwide since the outbreak began in December.
Kenya’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday it was aware of 85 Kenyans stranded in Wuhan and had been in touch with most of them to provide assistance and was “closely monitoring the situation”.