Coronavirus in Ethiopia: Updates
Ethiopia has just reported its first confirmed case of the Coronavirus or Covid-19. The subject in question is a 48 year old Japanese man who is currently in quarantine at the Ethiopian government run Yekatit hospital.On 13 March 2020, the 1st Coronavirus case was diagnosed in Ethiopia and the person in question was identified as a Japanese citizen.
The process of contact tracing is currently taking place, according to Lia Tadesse, the Health Minister of Ethiopia.
On the 15th of March 2020, 3 additional cases of the Coronavirus in Ethiopia were reported. The infected people are said to be 1 Ethiopian national and 2 Japanese nationals, who had contact with the 1st individual who was reported to be infected by the virus on the 13th of March, 2020.
As of March 2020, the Coronavirus is in 134 countries; therefore, Tadese is claiming that enforcing a travel ban for Ethiopia will not work.
By the 17th of March 2020, a British diplomat who arrived from Dubai tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of infected individuals to six.
As of March 21, the number of confirmed cases of corona virus in Ethiopia has risen to 9, with the new cases being an Australian, a Japanese and an Ethiopian coming from abroad.
The Ethiopian Man Leading the Worldwide War Against Coronavirus
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the Ethiopian national who is in charge of the WHO or the World Health Organization, the organization that is charged with the fight against the COVID-19 virus.
This coronavirus is now officially being called a pandemic.
He holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Community Health from the University of Nottingham in the UK and a Master of Science in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London.
Tedros has been providing nearly daily updates on the latest news about the coronavirus in Ethiopia as well as the world over.
He was born in Asmara, Eritrea in 1965, and is the first African to become director-general of this huge and important organization.
Since May 2017 he has been promising to transform the agency, tackle emergencies and make health coverage universal.
As the World Health Organization chief, the world was still feeling the effects from a devastating Ebola outbreak which claimed more than 11,300 lives in West Africa. But another outbreak of the viral disease soon took hold; this time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Over 2,200 people have been laid to rest since the Congo declared an Ebola outbreak in August 2018, the tenth in its modern history.
The last Ebola patient in the DRC was released from hospital earlier this month on March 2020, bringing the nearly 2 year outbreak closer to an end.
During this time though, another outbreak had garnered global attention, it was the novel COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus or the SARS-CoV-2 virus that was first detected late last year in Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province.
As of March 17, 2020 the virus has spread to some 150 countries, infecting more than 170,000 people and causing 7,019 deaths. It is believed to have a 3% mortality rate.
