The Coronavirus scare

The World Health Organization (WHO) may not as yet have declared it a global health challenge, but the speed at which the deadly corona virus is spreading from China where it was first reported has caught the world’s attention. The death toll, as of yesterday, had risen to 56.

China on Sunday morning announced 15 more deaths from the new coronavirus, including one in Shanghai, the first reported in the metropolis. Thirteen more deaths were also announced in Hubei Province, where the outbreak began, and one was announced in Henan Province. The latest deaths brought the toll in China to 56. Across the country, 688 cases of the new virus were diagnosed on Saturday, the government said early Sunday. That brings the total number of confirmed cases to 1,975.

Outside China, a person in Orange County, Calif, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Orange County Health Care Agency, which received confirmation from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the person had been sent to a hospital and was in “good condition.” It is the third confirmed case in the United States. The others involved a woman in her 60s in Chicago and a man in his 30s in Washington State.

Cases of the new virus have been reported in seven other countries, including South Korea. All involve travellers from China. In Africa, the Ivory Coast has announced one case. The country said on Sunday that an Ivorian woman who had recently returned from China was suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, although tests have not yet fully confirmed it. Dr. Eugène Aka Aouele, the Ivorian health minister, said in a statement that on Saturday the authorities had been alerted by the airport in Abidjan, the capital, that the woman, a 34-year-old student, had been living in Beijing for the past five years. She arrived on a Turkish Airlines flight to Abidjan and was exhibiting flulike symptoms, including coughing and respiratory difficulties, that had appeared earlier in the week.

It is at this point that we implore the Nigerian government to begin to take the needed measures to ensure the country is spared this new virus. We have known all along that Africa’s growing engagement with China will come at great costs to our populations. This is one of them. While Nigerians with valid travel papers cannot be stopped from going wherever they wish to go, the government can help advise where to visit and where not.

We were very impressed with the way our government handled the Ebola virus when it first broke out in the DRC in 2015. The preemptive steps it took then ensured Nigeria recorded few deaths than did other countries. That drew commendations from the WHO. Let’s do the same this time around.