ADDIS ABABA (ENA) -Africa Center for Diseases Control (CDC),Director Jhon Nkengasong has conducted a joint visit with the Ministry of Health, WHO, AARHB to the screening sites and the quarantine center at Bole international airport.
The visit targeted to strengthening the joint efforts made by Ethiopia and the CDC in preventing the novel coronavirus outbreak, it was indicated. Ethiopia has quarantined four suspected cases for being infected of coronavirus during their arrival at Bole International Airport last Tuesday though the preliminary results showed negative with no positive case of the virus.
[Later yesterday, Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa Takele Uma tweeted that “The sample sent to South Africa for coronavirus test is turned to be negative. And people quarantined at the center get to their homes.] According to the Ministry of Health, no case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Ethiopia so far.
But the country intensifies its surveillance and testing facilities to ensure that it can manage to provide urgent health response. Africa Center for Diseases Control (CDC) recently called on AU member states to take collective actions in fighting coronavirus through preventive measures.
Coronavirus, which occurred over the last couple of weeks in China, has so far been spread to 37 countries. The coronavirus outbreak has killed 132 people in China and sickened more than 6,150 in more than a dozen countries across the globe.
The spread of a fast-moving virus outside of China is of “grave concern” and has prompted the World Health Organization to reconvene an emergency meeting this week to decide whether it’s a global health emergency.
The Ethiopian Herald, Friday Edition, January 31/2020
BY DESTA GEBREHIWOT
