Ivory Coast Tests First Person In Africa For Coronavirus

Health officials in Ivory Coast are investigating a suspected case of the deadly Coronavirus in a female student who recently arrived from China.

The country’s health ministry announced that the student who is yet to be named is the first person to be tested for the virus on the continent.

The Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene said in statement that the 34-year-old student traveled from Beijing to the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Abidjan on Saturday and was coughing, sneezing and experienced difficulty breathing.

The student was moved to a safe location upon arrival at the airport and is currently under medical observation, the ministry said.

But the authorities believe it might be a case of pneumonia and not coronavirus, but the final diagnosis will be made after the analysis of the results of the test, the ministry added.

The virus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has infected more than 2700 people with 56 already killed.