Senegal confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus on Monday, marking just the second infection in sub-Saharan Africa amid concerns over the continent’s vulnerability to outbreaks of contagious diseases. A French man who lives in Senegal visited France in mid-February, contracting the virus before returning to the West African country and being quarantined in the capital Dakar, Senegal’s Health Minister Diouf Sarr said. “The results of the tests carried out by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar came back positive,” Sarr told journalists. The first case in sub-Saharan African was recorded last week in Nigeria, where an Italian national returned with the virus from his home country. The World Health Organization has urged African countries to come together and be more aggressive in attacking the virus.

Source: Punch March 02, 2020 18:33 UTC