Last two African countries without COVID-19 resilience broken
Two of African countries that have held their own against coronavirus ever since the continent recorded its first case on February 14 have now confirmed their index cases.
While the Comoros Island recorded its first case on April 30, Lesotho confirmed its first case on May 13.
This means all 55 countries in Africa have now recorded the virus, four months after Egypt had its index case in February.
The Health Minister of Lesotho, a southern African country, confirmed the country had recorded its first case, becoming the last nation on the continent to confirm an infection.
On Wednesday, the country’s health ministry said 81 coronavirus tests had been conducted on travellers from neighbouring South African and Saudi Arabia, with one person testing positive. 301 other test results are yet to be released.
“The Ministry of Health informs the Basotho nation and the entire community living in Lesotho, that the country now has the first confirmed case of COVID-19,” the ministry’s Director-General, Dr Nyane Letsie, said.
The patient is a Lesotho national studying in Saudi Arabia.
The mountain kingdom of more than two million citizens is surrounded by its bigger, more industrialised neighbour, South Africa.
Lesotho went into lockdown on March 29 to isolate itself from a potential spread of the virus from South Africa, which has recorded more than 10,000 cases – the highest on the African continent.
Lesotho eased the restrictions on May 6, allowing “all non-essential services and enterprises” to “temporarily open shop”.
Africa has confirmed close to 70,000 COVID-19 cases, including 2,421 deaths and 23,857 recoveries, according to a Reuters news agency’s tally based on government statements and the WHO data.
Nearly 4.3 million people across the globe have been infected since the virus appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year. More than 293,500 people have died.
In the case of Lesotho, the country’s President, Azali Assoumani revealed that the patient was a 50-year old Franco-Comorian, who has since been admitted to a hospital.
Borders remain closed in Comoros while a curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. is in effect. During this Ramadan period, the mosques are also closed but there is no full lockdown.
President Assoumani explained that contact tracing was being carried out.