Coronavirus case confirmed in Senegal

Senegal’s health minister on Monday announced the first case of coronavirus in the country, the second case in sub-Saharan Africa after one was confirmed in Nigeria last week.

The patient is a French man who lives in Senegal and flew back from France on Feb. 26, Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr told reporters. The patient had since been in contact with his wife and two children and is now under quarantine in a hospital in the capital Dakar.

He passed a temperature check at the capital Dakar’s main airport on his return but developed a fever two days later and went to a private clinic for a check-up, the minister said. That clinic alerted the authorities who have quarantined him in Dakar’s Fann Hospital.

The patient had been in contact with his wife and two children, the minister said. It was not clear how many other people had also been in contact with him. Authorities are in the process of tracing the other passengers on the Air Senegal flight.

Fann Hospital was not reachable for comment.

The rapid spread of the new coronavirus has increased fears of a pandemic, prompting governments to step up control measures and sending global markets into a dive.

– Reuters.