Coronavirus Outbreak: All the Secrets Revealed About the Covid-19 Pandemic. A complete Rational Guide of its Evolution, Expansion, Symptoms and First Defense

Why Africa Should Be Prepared
As of January 20, 2020, the Chinese government announced 136 new cases
of infection with this virus that spread to other cities across the country over
the weekend, bringing the total confirmed cases to over 200 worldwide (ref.
10). Cases of Covid-19 infection have now been identified in several other

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countries in the region: a case of Covid-19 infection of a 61-year-old Chinese
tourist from Wuhan in Bangkok was registered in Thailand on 8 January
202011. On 10 January 2010, a male patient was confirmed to be hospitalized
by the Japanese Ministry of Health and tested positive for the virus. It also
reported suspected cases in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The study of the models has suggested that more than 1,700 people could
have been contaminated. The study, which had a broad confident interval of
95 percent ranging from 427 to 4,471, made assumptions based on the vast
international air traffic from Wuhan, which is a travel hub, and the patients '
incubation periods in Thailand and Japan.
As a consequence of air traffic and vast population movements the rapid
spread of Covid-19 in Asia will matter in Africa. Africa was largely spared
the SARS epidemic in 2002, as only one case was recorded in South Africa—
a businessman who had traveled to Hong Kong. But as a result of the rapid
expansion of Chinese investment in Africa18, air traffic between China and
Africa has risen by more than 600 per cent in the past decade. For example,
Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's largest airline, today operates nearly half of
Africa's 2,616 annual flights to China18.
Therefore, African countries need to be on the alert and improve their public-
health surveillance and laboratory networks, coordinated by functional
national public-health agencies, to better prepare to prevent, identify and
monitor any potential spread of the novel virus on the continent, rapidly.
Efforts between the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based
in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, and China CDC for sharing information on
potential people suspected of being sick traveling from China to Africa also
need to be more organized.
China's political openness to timely coverage and the discovery of the novel
Covid-19 virus, together with the rapid sequencing and public dissemination
of the sequences, represents a new dawn for global health security and
international health diplomacy. Additionally, there is hope that China CDC's
much-strengthened networks will produce a huge return on public health
investment in combating the outbreak, should it spread more widely in China.
It will also improve health protection for the world, as the global health chain
is only as strong as its weakest link, so a threat to disease will easily become
a threat anywhere.

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